Chiswap Chronicles
by DragonNutt
Summary: Jack Spicer, Xiaolin Dragon of Metal in training, has lived at the Xiaolin temple since he was six years old. With Omi as his best friend and Master Monk Chase as his favorite teacher, he strives to be the coolest, most amazing robot-wielding warrior in the world. But the universe has its ways of maintaining the balance of good and evil.
1. Chapter 1

Jack Spicer, Xiaolin Boy Genius, took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. "Alright, so I know my last robot might have caused a few unfortunate accidents in the kitchen last week." Lifting up his freshly painted Maid-Bot, he beamed proudly. "But my new design will solve every problem a Xiaolin monk could ever have! Never again will I—or uh, anyone else—have to lift a finger for chores! Laundry, dishes, dusting, you name it, and she can do it!"

Master Monk Chase said nothing. Sitting quietly in the meditation hall, he eyed the robot with an unreadable expression and took a sip of his tea.

Jack decided to interpret his silence as a good sign. Pressing a button at his wrist, he released the robot and let it hover in front of him. At his command, it took a theatrical spin and a bow. Jack folded his hands. "As I am sure you are aware, we mighty Xiaolin Dragons have a schedule full of training, fighting, and using our brilliant minds. It would be a terrible waste to spend our valuable time on such, uh, tedious and trivial matters… like chores." Breaking out of his serious and professional persona, he dramatically threw out his arms to frame the robot. "So here is the answer to my—I mean, your—prayers: Jack Spicer's Maid-Bot 12.0!" He leaned forward a bit, bouncing on the soles of his feet and biting his lip. "So? What do you think?"

Lowering his cup of tea, Master Monk Chase raised an eyebrow and said, "I think it's quite interesting how much your robot resembles Master Fung's missing coffee machine."

"I—!" Jack gulped, somehow managing to keep his smile from faltering and giving him away. "Uh. You think so?" He overcorrected a bit when he swayed back to stand upright.

"Oddly enough, its head is shaped a bit like a lightbulb," said Chase, "specifically the one that disappeared from the dorm's overhead last week. And if I didn't know better, I would think its fingers resemble pieces from Master Fung's toenail clipper—"

Laughing nervously, Jack grabbed the robot and shoved it behind him. "Soooo I might have borrowed some stuff. It's a prototype! I'll have way better access to my own materials once I harness my element better, which I'll only be able to do if I spend less time on chores, by the way. I can get Master Fung a new coffee machine! Well uh, I think I can— I'd have to call my grandma—"

"Master Fung does not want a new coffee machine," said Chase, now frowning a little. "He wants his belongings returned to him. Take your robot apart and put everything back where you found it."

Jack's mouth dropped, and in what was definitely a _rare_ sign of immaturity, he stomped his foot in defiance. "But Chaaaaase, it can do all my chores for me! And it could do yours, too, I swear! Why should I wash dishes and underwear when I could be doing something more important?"

"There is nothing more important than keeping your living space clean and safe for all its dwellers, whether that be your temple, your bedroom, or the entire world." Master Monk Chase finished his tea and stood. "But if you insist, the dismantling of your robot can wait. Go find Omi. Master Fung and I have something important to tell you both."

"Uuuuugh, fine." Turning around to shut off the Maid-Bot and let it drop into his arms, he narrowed his eyes at the elder. "But this conversation isn't over."

"It never is," agreed Chase with an exasperated sigh.

The two parted ways, and Jack dashed to his bedroom to toss the robot into the scattered chaos of metal and wire pieces littering his floor. Master Fung had spent years trying to curb his interest in building machines, and Jack's absolute refusal to cooperate was the main reason Master Fung needed a coffee machine in the first place. Half-built robots sat atop every piece of furniture available, squished between instruction manuals on his bookshelf and stacked on top of the dresser. Even Jack's wide-open underwear drawer held a glaring mechanical head amongst the strewn undergarments.

Jack peeked into Omi's room, far cleaner and emptier than his own. "That goody-two-shoes better not be training again," he muttered before trotting down the hallway.

To his complete lack of surprise, he found the bald little monk outside, springing off the foyer and into the rain. Effortlessly landing a front flip, Omi barely spared him a glance until Jack called, "Master Monk Chase told you to get your butt indoors."

Pulling himself out of his battle stance, Omi pointed at Jack. "If Master Monk Chase knew that my Lotus Strike lands an eighth of an inch to the left—"

"Oh no, one whole eighth of an inch?" Jack gave an exaggerated gasp and dragged his palms down his cheeks. "How will you live with yourself if the crack you give to your enemy's skull is off-center?"

"You mock me now, Jack, but the slightest error could mean the difference between victory and defeat!" Omi straightened his back and raised his chin a bit. "If you were as dedicated to the accuracy of your attacks, perhaps your robots would have better aiming skills than an average Stormtrooper's."

Jack scowled at him. "They're called Jackbots."

Breaking into a smile, Omi added, "Did you get my joke? They're like the Star Wars movie you showed me—"

"Yeah, Cheddar Head, I pieced that together." Leaning against the doorway, Jack pointed his thumb behind him. "Now get your butt out of the rain. Chase said he had something important to tell us."

As Omi finally strolled inside, he said, "Speaking of your robots, I assume your conversation with Master Monk Chase ended in failure once more?"

Still scowling while they started the walk back up the hallway, Jack huffed and crossed his arms. "He's lucky he's so pretty…"

Omi rolled his eyes but kept his expression otherwise impassive. "Jack Spicer, your infatuation with Master Monk Chase is a waste of your time and energy. He is far too old to pursue any romantic endeavors with you."

Jack flushed and tried to smack Omi upside the head, but the little monk dodged with ease. "Hey! You don't get to tell me what to do with my life. I'm the older one here! I'm the one who gives you advice and takes care of you, got it?"

Omi glanced at him. "Tie your shoes, Jack."

Bouncing as he lifted one foot to grab at his laces, Jack followed Omi back to the meditation hall. When Master Monk Chase and Master Fung strolled out to meet them, the latter's mouth pressed into a line. "Jack, where are your robes?"

Jack glanced down at his maroon t-shirt and khaki cargo pants. "Uh. I didn't want to get motor oil on them." Honestly, he wasn't sure where his Xiaolin robes were, though he vaguely remembered using the white pants like a napkin last night to wipe some black and red paint off his hands.

Master Fung closed his eyes for a moment and took a long breath. The little green dragon on his shoulder, Dojo, shook his head in disapproval, but Jack ignored him. Finally, the elder monk said, "Perhaps you could change into something more presentable before you meet the new students arriving at the temple."

"New students?!" Jack and Omi said in unison.

"Three, to be exact," clarified Master Monk Chase. "All Chosen Ones, just like the two of you."

Omi gasped. "Really? Do they know how to walk on walls and ceilings yet? Can I show them my Viper Strike? My Lotus Strike hasn't been perfected yet—"

"Perhaps, young monk, perhaps." Master Fung started walking, and Omi scampered after him like a puppy, still babbling about his martial arts.

Trailing behind Master Monk Chase, Jack wasn't quite sure how to feel. He hadn't hung out with other kids his age since he was in first grade, a year full of swirlies and purple nurples. Still, he'd grown a lot since then. If any of these new students tried to dunk his head into a toilet, he could always set his robot army on them, assuming Omi didn't pounce on them first.

Master Fung passed through the grand hall and through a doorway, and though Omi trotted after him, Jack paused at the door with Master Monk Chase. On the other side of the large, well-lit room, three young teenagers stood, and Jack took a sharp, surprised breath.

One of the three whipped his head around. Though his hoodie was drawn over his head, the teen's green eyes were sharp and piercing under his tussled brown hair. His white jacket's sleeves were short, showing off tan, muscled arms. Jack was pretty sure that if the phrase, "tall, dark, and handsome," was in a dictionary, this guy's face would be the picture next to it.

Next to him, a girl chattered on her mobile, which Jack immediately recognized as the pink version of the latest PandaPhone model. Though the two other newcomers towered over her dainty frame, her blue eyes gleamed with fiery confidence. Next to her, the perfect caricature of a sturdy Texan cowboy stood, complete with hat, boots, and a neckerchief. His arms and chest looked thick enough to break a truck in half.

"Oh no," Jack mumbled under his breath. "They're all hot."

"Are you alright, Jack?" asked Master Monk Chase.

Jack's mouth spread into a wide grin. "I am _fantastic_ , thank you." As suavely as he could manage, he strolled into the room to join Omi's side. Other than a raised eyebrow from the hooded teen, no one paid him much attention.

"Omi, Jack," said Master Fung, "I would like you to meet Raimundo, Kimiko, and Clay."

At the first name, the hooded teen said, "'Sup."

"He said that?" the girl gasped to her phone. Looking up, she gave a distracted, "Hey," before returning to her phone chat. "No way!"

At the third name, the cowboy dipped his hat. "Howdy."

Omi tugged at Jack's cargo pants and murmured, "You and the girl must have a lot in common!"

"How do you figure?" asked Jack, waving awkwardly when Kimiko glanced at them.

"You have a shared interest in graphic designs on your shirts," Omi said, pointing at the star on Kimiko's blouse and the Frankenstein design on Jack's tee, "and she is also rude enough to have a conversation on her phone during an important meeting! You two must be kindred spirits!"

Eyes widening, the girl stammered, "Uh… I'm gonna have to call you back, Keiko." Face flushing red, she shoved the phone into her backpack. Omi gave her a smile that everyone in the room except Jack interpreted as "innocent."

Barely repressing another sigh, Master Monk Chase stepped forward. "Welcome to the Xiaolin temple, young ones. I will be one of your teachers here. Jack, Omi, why don't you give your new teammates a tour of the temple?"

Still thinking about how the number of gorgeous people in the temple had jumped from one to four, Jack almost didn't hear him. Omi, however, bowed to the group and said, "An excellent idea, Master Monk Chase! Welcome, new friends!" He glanced back when Jack didn't join him.

Blinking and trying very hard to stop gawking, Jack cleared his throat and straightened his back. "Yeah, uh, welcome! You guys, you're uh, you're not what I expected, that's for sure!"

"The best things in life rarely are," said Master Fung.

For once, Jack agreed with him.

* * *

 **Author's Notes** : Yoooo, I'm alive! And I'm still writing Xiaolin stuff! Woohoo!

This will be my first attempt at an AU fic, one loosely based on an RP my roommate and I worked on a couple years ago. Here, Jack Spicer has grown up on the side of good, but he's still a mischievous little tech geek. He's left his mark on Omi, too, who's now savvier and sassier than his canon counterpart. But since Jack is on the side of good, then who replaced him on the side of evil? Hmmm, I wonder!

As always, feel free to review!


	2. Chapter 2

As the five students made their way back up the hallway and out toward the gardens, Chase quietly watched them leave, clasping his hands together a little too tightly under his sleeves. Nothing about these new three struck him as unusual, and yet…

Master Fung strolled to his side and said, "I sense disquiet in you. What is on your mind?"

Chase took a long breath, thinking back to the dozens of previous generations from the past 1,500 years. "We've never had five Xiaolin Dragons in training all at once before. Even back in Wuya's reign, there were only three: Dashi, me, and… and Guan." He frowned a little but quickly resumed his impassive expression.

Master Fung nodded slowly. "And you are worried about how the balance between good and evil will shift to accommodate these new monks."

Chase nodded. Dojo sprang from Master Fung's shoulder to his. Casually curling his tail across the back of Chase's neck, the dragon said, "Come on, Chase baby. You and I have weathered 1,500 years of evil. Giant spiders, green monkeys, earwigs, grim reapers… two-headed Atlantis-eating dragons…" He rubbed at one of his feathery ears and chuckled nervously. "My point is, no matter what the world has thrown at you, you've always come out on top!"

"I am not at all worried about what could happen to me," Chase said, following Master Fung as the two walked to the meditation rooms. "But if five Xiaolin Dragons are needed to maintain the balance of good and evil, then whenever that evil may rise, I merely hope our students will be ready."

* * *

"The key is balance!" Omi strolled in front of the group on two fingers, both feet high in the air. "If you are a beginner, you might want to start with three fingers."

Clay wiggled two of his fingers in front of him. "Uh, just curious: when will we need this?"

Raimundo stared intently at the smallest monk. "Might be useful for sneaking around. Maybe somewhere your footsteps would be too loud. Or on a narrow walkway."

"Looks like a waste of time to me," Kimiko mumbled, arms crossed and with cheeks still pink from her earlier embarrassment.

"Never mind that, then." Springing back onto his feet, Omi clasped his hands together and bowed respectfully to the group. "Firstly, I do offer my condolences for the fate of your parents."

The three newbies stared blankly at him, and Jack smacked his own forehead. Voice low, Raimundo asked, "What about our parents?"

This time it was Omi's turn to blink in confusion. "Are you not orphans? Like me and Jack?"

Raimundo's face turned pale. Frowning and glancing at the others, Clay said, "Not to my knowledge." Kimiko pulled out her phone and started dialing a number before Jack managed to intervene.

"Your parents are fine!" Waving his hands in appeasement, he aimed a kick at Omi's shins and missed. "Omi's just an idiot; he thought you guys were orphans like us, and that's why you were here."

"Oh." The three glanced at each other again. Kimiko blinked, tapped at her phone, and put it back in her bag. Raimundo let out a breath he had been holding, and Clay let out an uneasy chuckle. Kimiko said, "You two are orphans?"

"I have been here since I was a baby," said Omi with a nod, "and Jack's parents died in a car crash when he was six. His grandmother sent him here."

"Oh," Kimiko said again. "Um. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Jack rubbed at his temples before taking a breath and gesturing to Omi and himself. "Well, now that someone has made everything awkward, time to introduce ourselves! This is Omi. He punches stuff, and he makes everything awkward. I'm Jack Spicer, Xiaolin Boy Genius—"

"Self-proclaimed genius," Omi muttered.

"No, it's official, I took an IQ test and everything—"

"You cheated on that IQ test."

"And who else would be smart enough to do that?"

"Your shoelaces are still untied, Jack."

"My point is," said Jack, turning away from Omi's triumphant smirk, "I know the place like the back of my robots' hands. I am an expert on everything Xiaolin, so if you have any questions," He gave the group a cheesy wink and a set of finger guns, "don't hesitate to ask."

"Riiight," said Kimiko. Pulling out a PDA, she glanced at it and asked, "First question, then: any net connection? I need to send an email to a friend in Tokyo."

"Sure is!" Jack straightened his back proudly. "I set it up myself when I was seven! Don't tell Master Fung."

"The password is 'jackspiceroolz,'" said Omi. "J-A-C-K-S-P-I-C-E-R-O-O-L-Z. He was trying to say 'Jack Spicer rules,' but he forgot the second R and—"

Jack aimed and missed another kick at the small monk, but to their surprise, Kimiko giggled. "Seven years old, huh? Sounds like you know your way around a computer?"

Jack spun back to her and puffed out his chest. "Sure do! I've hacked more hard drives than you've ever seen, baby!"

"Somehow I doubt that," Kimiko said, resting a hand on her hip but still smiling.

Wondering if flexing his admittedly noodle-shaped muscles for her would have the desired effect, Jack stuck his thumbs into his pockets instead. "I'm more of the inventor type, though. Just this morning, I made a bot that can dust, wash dishes, sweep, and do laundry, all made out of recycled materials!"

"Recycled?" said Omi. "That's an odd way to pronounce 'stolen.'"

"Heeeeey, Cheddar Head," said Jack, turning a forced smile toward the small monk, "why don't you go do something fun with Raimundo and Clay, huh?"

Rolling his eyes, Omi spun on his heel to face the taller boys. "Are either of you swift on your feet?" Before either teen had the chance to answer, Omi beamed and took off down the field. "Then witness the fierce cheetah method of fighting! I defy you to catch me!"

Jack returned his attention to Kimiko. "Sorry about him. Where were we?" Kimiko, however, had her eyes on the other boys. Omi dashed around the grassy fields, babbling about a strategy to keep his opponents confused. Raimundo didn't move, but Clay pulled a rope out of his hat. Jack's eyebrows rose as the cowboy casually tied a lasso, threw it, and snagged Omi by the ankle. The small monk hit the dirt with a yelp.

"Hope I didn't muck up your lesson too much, little fella," said Clay. "Just can't resist a challenge."

Jack started laughing so hard that he nearly fell over. Kimiko giggled, and Raimundo smiled with a mixture of amusement and sympathy for their tiny teacher. Red-faced while the cowboy pulled the rope and dragged him back to the group, Omi sprang to his feet. The rest of the group braced itself for a temper tantrum, but instead, Omi took a deep breath, untied himself, and straightened his back. "Not at all, Clay. I am quite used to a teammate finding loopholes in my battle strategies."

His gaze slid to Jack, who smirked and said, "Keeps you on your toes."

Omi gritted his teeth. "Indeed."

* * *

Though Chase was tempted to observe the three newest students more closely, he agreed with Master Fung that allowing the five a chance to bond unsupervised would provide the most opportunity for them. He held a certain admiration for Master Fung's hands-off teaching methods, especially since they remained unchanged despite all the years of Jack Spicer constantly testing the elder's patience. If Chase were in charge, he would be down in the fields with the kids to at least make sure they were all getting along. However, he knew better than to let his desire for control get in the way of their budding friendships.

He had no reason to worry. He and the other elder monks had already moved the belongings of the new students into the dormitories, and starting tomorrow, the three would join Omi and Jack in their regular training. Everything was going exactly as it should-

A freezing shudder shot through Chase's back, and his eyes opened.

Sitting in a circle with the other elder monks, joined in meditation around the vault's cauldron, the warrior looked around at the others. Master Fung met his gaze. Eyes round, the bearded monk asked, "Did you sense that?"

Another elderly monk murmured, "It was as if a great chill had descended upon the land."

Master Fung raised an eyebrow, still watching Chase. "Do you recognize…?"

Chase's fingers clasped together tightly. "It's not Hannibal. His presence is more… sickly." He turned to gaze upward at the glass ceiling, through which the sky was still thankfully a clear blue. It couldn't be possible. Her puzzle box had been lost centuries ago, and yet… "I haven't felt this presence in 1,500 years. Someone has set her free."

Master Fung nodded slowly. "Wuya."

* * *

"Who's Wuya?" asked Raimundo.

The five young monks sat in a semi-circle around Master Fung and Master Monk Chase. Jack had made sure to sit right next to Kimiko, who gave him a friendly smile. At Raimundo's question, Omi's hand shot up, and Jack mouthed "teacher's pet" at him.

Master Fung acknowledged Omi's hand with a nod but answered the question himself, "She is an ancient Heylin witch from the era of Grand Master Dashi, creator of the Shen Gong Wu. Though she is currently powerless, she will attempt to collect the Shen Gong Wu for herself to build her strength. Should she succeed, the world will be thrown into ten thousand years of darkness. It is your most solemn duty as Xiaolin Warriors to find all the Shen Gong Wu before Wuya does."

Omi's hand dropped, and his expression turned solemn. Jack drummed his fingers on his crossed arms and said, "I have a question."

Master Fung's gaze slid to the redhead. "Yes?"

"Where's all my stuff?" When the others turned to stare at him, he pointed backwards. "You guys squished my room over to Omi's side to make space for the new guys, and all my bots are gone! Where'd you put them all?"

Master Fung looked like he had to physically restrain his own eye from twitching. "I assure you, Jack, all your belongings are still there. The only things missing are the parts and pieces that were never yours to begin with."

Omi put a hand over his mouth to muffle his giggle. Clay gave Jack a judgmental frown. Kimiko scooted a few inches away from him and shifted her backpack to her lap, watching him with newfound distrust. The only student who didn't respond to Jack's implied thievery was Raimundo, who leaned forward and asked, "The Shen Gong Wu… they're weapons, right? How do we get them before this witch person?"

Master Monk Chase answered, "You will need the ancient scroll of the Shen Gong Wu, which will inform you of their abilities as they reveal themselves. Dojo is currently guarding it; he will escort you to each location."

"Dojo?" Raimundo frowned skeptically. "The gecko?"

Jack snorted. Leaning closer to the hooded teen, he said, "Call him that to his face. I dare you."

Raimundo wrinkled his nose and leaned further back from Jack. "Why? What's the worst he can do? Bite me?"

* * *

A few minutes later, after abruptly learning that Dojo could change size, breathe fire, and most certainly did not appreciate a comparison between him and any species of common lizard, Raimundo stomped outside with his expression sour and his hair only slightly singed. Clutching the Shen Gong Wu scroll, the enormous dragon slithered out the door after him and called, "Hop on, kiddies!"

Omi bounded onto Dojo's back immediately, and Jack clambered on with a grumble, but the other three were too busy gawking. Dojo preened at their awe, and eventually Kimiko and Clay found the courage to climb onto him. Raimundo, tugging his hood forward, was the last to join. When Dojo took off, the new three's outcries and yelps drowned out Jack's groan of dread. He certainly wasn't scared of heights, but Dojo's serpentine body coasted through the air currents in the sky, which meant lots and lots of undulating. Jack had to keep his eyes either clamped shut or focused on a stationary spot on the dragon's scales to keep from getting nauseated.

"So, Omi," said Dojo, passing the scroll back to the smallest monk, "what's the name of your first hot one? Mantis Flip Coin? Ants in the Pants? Fist of Tebigong? Can't believe you kids are already on your first Wu hunt! You're all growing up so fast…"

Before Jack could grumpily point out that Dojo had known three of them for less than a day, Omi opened up the scroll and read, "The Moby Morpher."

Jack fell flat on his face as Dojo's flight abruptly slowed. The dragon whipped his head around. "What?"

Omi held up the scroll for the other monks behind him to see. "Whoever possesses the Moby Morpher can change his shape and size, even taking on the appearance of his enemies." In the center of the scroll, a round display showed a figure moving around like it belonged in a mystical television screen, but Jack was honestly too queasy to be impressed by mundane magic.

Dojo curled a bit in the air to bring his head closer to the group. "Are you sure that's what it says? It's not something… easier…?" His voice trailed off when he saw the scroll himself.

"What's got your goat, Dojo?" Clay asked. "You're lookin' a mite pale, there."

Dojo's lips curled as far down as they could go on his reptilian jawline, but when he glanced back up and saw the dawning worry of his passengers, he gave them a forced smile. "Nothing! Just different from the norm, that's all!" He whipped his head back around and sped forward again, causing Jack to fly backwards and smack the back of his head onto Clay's chest.

Clay, who didn't even flinch at the collision, grabbed Jack's shoulders and helped him sit back upright. "Uh, you alright there, partner?"

Flushing and laughing nervously, Jack casually stretched his arms over his head. "Hey, don't worry about me! I'm tougher than I look!" He swallowed a burp of nausea and grabbed onto Dojo again.

After what couldn't have been long, despite Jack's stomach complaining otherwise, Dojo descended upon a smoking volcanic island. The monks clutched the dragon closely as he landed right at the volcano's rim. Lava bubbled in the crater amongst chunks of hardened rock. When Dojo shrank down, Jack hobbled aside to sit down while the others nervously approached the rim.

"Uh." Kimiko rested her fists on her hips. "What now?"

Dojo sprang onto Clay's hat and peered into the smoke. "Now we fetch the Shen Gong Wu and hope no bad guys show up." After a moment of silence, he added, "And by 'we,' I mean 'you.'"

Clay tilted his hat a bit and turned around to gaze down the side of the volcano. "Where is it?"

Raimundo silently pointed into the smoke. Atop a hardened rock in the middle of the lava sat a gleaming black and red object. Raimundo cautiously placed his foot at the edge of the rim and bit his lip. Kimiko looked up at Dojo and said, "Can't you fly over there and get it?"

"Hey, this is a learning experience!" Dojo crossed his arms and smiled. "You kids can't become Xiaolin Dragons if I'm holding your hands the whole time. You'll have to go fetch it yourselves."

Managing to successfully contain his breakfast, Jack clambered back to his feet and joined the group. Omi held a hand up to him. "Jack, may I borrow your goggles?"

Jack shrugged and yanked his set of gold goggles from his head. "Knock yourself out." Omi pulled them over his own eyes, and before anyone could stop him, he sprang straight into the volcano with a battle cry. Kimiko and Clay called out in alarm, and Raimundo looked ready to leap after the child. Jack crossed his arms and muttered, "Show off."

The smallest monk dashed across the lava from rock to rock until he reached the precipice with the black object. He paused and looked around, looking almost puzzled before he hoisted the Moby Morpher off its rock and dashed back across the lava to the others. As soon as he reached the rim, he dropped the Shen Gong Wu on the ground and rubbed his hands on his sleeves, muttering, "It's hot…"

Jack gave him a golf clap. Clay and Dojo cheered, and Kimiko beamed. "That was amazing, Omi!"

Omi returned her smile with a smug one of his own. "I possess the speed and grace of a cheetah. A simple task like that was too easy for me."

"Yeah…" Dojo nodded slowly, and his own smile dwindled a bit. "Yeah, that was… really easy…"

Raimundo looked around, arms crossed and eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Didn't Master Fung say that Wuya would try to get the Shen Gong Wu first?" The way he stared at their surroundings reminded Jack of a hawk, checking every detail for a sign of danger.

Omi picked up the Moby Morpher and peered around. "Yes, he did, but where is she?"

The six were silent, waiting for the witch to burst out from the shadows like the boogeyman. However, the only movement and noise came from the faint sizzling and bubbling of the lava nearby.

Clay shrugged and said, "I reckon we just… got here first? Dojo is mighty fast."

"True…" Dojo drummed his claws against his chin for a moment before he sprang from the hat and expanded back to full size. "Well, if she's on the way, I'd rather get this Shen Gong Wu out of here before she can cause us any trouble. Hop on!" Jack groaned again, but all five were swift to climb onto the dragon's back and leave the volcanic island far behind.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, Omi woke up right at dawn, and as per the norm, he made his way to Jack's room to wake him up. The process usually took several minutes, involving plenty of arguing about whether or not Jack could function properly without "getting my twelve hours." Since the debate usually ended with Omi physically dragging Jack out of the room by the ankle, Jack never won, but it didn't stop him from trying.

However, when Omi pulled aside the curtain, Jack's bed was empty. Omi blinked and murmured, "How odd." He moved on to the next room and peeked inside; Raimundo was gone, too. If Omi hadn't heard Clay's bear-like snoring in the next room over, he might have panicked at the thought that he had overslept for once.

He turned just as Master Fung strolled into the hallway and said, "Good morning, young monk."

Omi bowed. "Good morning, master! Have you seen Jack anywhere? It is unusual for him to be awake this early."

Master Fung gave a quick shake of his head. "Haven't seen him. But speaking of Jack, I have something I wish to discuss with you. Now that we have three new Chosen Ones at the temple, Master Monk Chase and I have decided to change the chore assignments."

"Ah, I see!" Omi nodded. "You wish to make sure the chores are split evenly among the five of us."

"Not exactly." At the boy's puzzled frown, Master Fung smiled and added, "You see, Jack needs far more free time than the rest of you to work on his projects. His genius can't flourish while he's stuck doing mindless cleaning. Therefore, we thought it would be better if you did all his chores for him."

"What?" Omi's mouth dropped open. "Master, with all due respect, I fail to see the fairness in that! Why is his free time of more value than mine?"

"Because Jack is a genius, and you are not. Your brain is average at best."

Face turning red, Omi gritted his teeth and stomped his foot. "That is most subjective, Master Fung! Jack does not deserve special treatment just because he can build things! I am the one who fetched the Moby Morpher yesterday, and now you are punishing me for—"

He froze. Master Fung wore a devilish smirk that Omi had never seen on him before. It looked wrong on his face.

Omi's hands clenched into fists, and he screamed, "JACK SPICER!"

When Raimundo stepped out of the kitchen, he certainly did not expect Master Fung and Omi to run past him, the latter yelling with righteous fury and the former giggling like a mad man. Rubbing at the bags under his eyes, Raimundo took a bite out of his bread roll, slowly pivoted, and walked back into the kitchen.

When the two dashed around the corner, Master Fung crashed right into Master Monk Chase, who stood still as an oak tree while his assailant bounced off him. When the imposter hit the ground, the Moby Morpher flickered into view on his arms. With an odd squelching sound, "Master Fung" morphed back into Jack Spicer.

The pajama-clad redhead waved meekly. Master Monk Chase raised an eyebrow for a second, but before he could say anything, Omi skidded to a stop and pointed at Jack. "Master Monk Chase, Jack is breaking the rules again!"

"Am not, tattletale!" Jack scrambled to his feet and raised his arms over his head to keep Omi from reaching the Moby Morpher. "For your information, I was testing our valuable new doohickey—checking for weaknesses—"

Omi started clambering onto Jack, shouting over him, "Master Fung said we can only get the Shen Gong Wu out of the vault when he says so! I am certain that you do not have his permission—"

Trying to shout over Omi, Jack countered, "Standard protocol to test out any new products for any bugs or glitches—I'm sure these Shen Gong Wu things work the same way—"

Master Monk Chase reached out a hand to the hollering young monks and snatched the Moby Morpher away from them both, surprising them into silence. Voice calm, he said, "Jack, this is not a toy."

Jack wilted a little at his idol's disapproving frown, but when Omi shot him a smug grin, he squared his shoulders and said to the elder, "Come on, I didn't hurt anyone this time! Handled it pretty good, right? Didn't you see me? I looked and sounded exactly like Master Fung—Pretty impressive, huh?"

"Yes, Jack, very impressive," said Master Monk Chase. Jack beamed at the praise, but his giddiness was short-lived because Chase added, "Perhaps you can continue to impress us on the obstacle course when we start training this morning. You and Omi will be the first to run it." Jack's groan drowned out Omi's delighted gasp.

* * *

After three incredibly embarrassing minutes of clambering over a brick wall, dodging a flurry of wooden spears with a scream, crawling under swinging crescent blades, and getting walloped in the face by two bags of sand, Jack managed to stagger through the fake rings of fire and collapse at the obstacle course's finish line. Kimiko hit the timer on the stopwatch and said, "Well, um. Two minutes and 33 seconds slower than Omi, but uh, could have been worse. Probably."

Omi, whose mood had immensely improved after having the chance to show off, beamed and said, "Not to worry, Jack! You were only six times slower than me this time. That's far better than usual!" Jack threw the plushie at his face in response.

"I reckon everyone has an off day now and then," Clay said politely.

Looking bored, Raimundo asked, "Didn't you say you were an 'expert on everything Xiaolin' yesterday?"

Jack hobbled to his feet, blinking rapidly to stop the ground from spinning. Ears reddening at the question, he scowled and said, "Yeah, well, I'm more of a brainy kind of guy. If you'd rather be a brawn, go ahead." Snapping his fingers, he added with a grin, "Except- no, scratch that. Clay's bigger, so he's the alpha brawn. You can be the beta brawn."

Raimundo snorted. "How generous of you."

Kimiko volunteered to go next, tossing the stopwatch to Omi and charging toward the alligator pit. Though Jack had silently hoped that the dainty-looking Dragon of Fire would be as nonathletic as he was, she gracefully sprang across the alligator heads and front-flipped over the first brick wall. She raced through the course, effortlessly dodging the blades and sandbags, and she rescued the stuffed dog only twenty seconds slower than Omi.

With an apathetic eye roll, Raimundo went next, and the others' mouths fell open when he dashed across the pit and leaped over the brick wall within three seconds. Omi's face turned steadily paler as the teen sped through the course, threatening to blow the small monk's precious record out of the water. However, when Raimundo jumped through the fake ring of fire and landed at the finish line, the others' stunned silence ended with Jack's snigger.

"What?" Raimundo asked, eyes narrowing at the redhead.

"You were five seconds faster than Omi," said Kimiko, peeking over Omi's shoulder at the stopwatch. "But, uh…"

Omi pointed back to the ring of fire. "You forgot to rescue the dog."

Raimundo spun around to gawk at his failed objective. Sure enough, the stuffed dog still sat on its pedestal next to the finish line, untouched. Laughing, Jack threw an arm around the teen's shoulders and said, "That is called 'dis-qua-li-fi-cation,' Beta Brawn! Guess who's not in last place anymore! Do I hear… 'Jack Spicer'?"

Face flushing, Raimundo peeled Jack's arm off him and stuffed his own hands in his pockets. Kimiko casually stepped between the two and shoved Jack away before saying, "Alright, Clay, you're the last one up."

As the cowboy stepped to the starting line, he asked, "So all I gotta do is be the fastest to get to that doggy?"

"Correct!" said Omi.

"Make sure to actually get the doggy," said Jack, earning an angry glower from Raimundo.

"Alright." Clay took a deep breath and struck a pose with his arms out in front of him, one over the other with their wrists touching. Jack bit his lip, lamenting that Clay's red Xiaolin robes were too loose for him to see biceps that must be as thick as his own head.

"I trust your training is going well?" said Master Monk Chase, redirecting Jack's attention because even Clay's biceps couldn't compete with Chase's face. The teacher stepped off the porch and joined the group on the field, with Dojo perched on his shoulder.

Omi gestured to the cowboy. "Clay is about to run the obstacle course!"

"What?" said Dojo, digging a claw into his own ear. "Sorry, everything's been muffled all day."

Holding up the stopwatch, Kimiko called, "Ready, set, go!"

Clay pulled out of his stance, turned around, and silently scooped the toy dog off its pedestal at the end of the course. Holding out the plushie for the smallest monk, he said, "Here ya go. Reckon I shaved a few seconds off your record, Omi."

Kimiko and Jack started laughing, and a surprised smile lit Master Monk Chase's face. Raimundo scowled, and Omi stuttered, "But—but—you were supposed to run and jump and kick!"

Clay shrugged. "I didn't see the point o' all that hootin' and hollerin' so long as I got the dog."

"Kinda defeats the purpose of the exercise, doesn't it?" muttered Raimundo, nose wrinkled. "If you don't have to actually do anything, then what's the point?"

Clay's face fell at the biting question. "The point," said Master Monk Chase, strolling to the cowboy's side, "is that sometimes there are simple solutions to complex problems. Clay saw the obstacle course in a different way, and it allowed him to win the challenge with ease." To the cowboy, he nodded in approval. "Very clever."

Beaming, Clay said, "Thank you, sir!"

Raimundo muttered to the ground, "Real problems don't have simple solutions."

"Okaaaaaay, Mr. Dark and Broody," said Jack, elbowing Raimundo in the ribs, "if you want another go at the obstacle course that badly, no one is stopping you."

"WHAT?" said Dojo, now with three claws digging in his ear. "I can't hear you kids!"

Chase stared blankly at the dragon on his shoulder, and Clay squinted at Dojo's ear. Reaching over, he pried the dragon's hand away and plucked at a piece of string buried within the earwax. The other monks gagged while the cowboy pulled the brown-encrusted cord out of the ear. Dojo's eyes widened as something large and round swelled up in his head and then burst out with a pop. Before their eyes, a black and white yoyo swung down and dangled from Clay's hand.

"Dojo…" said Chase slowly, eyes wide and unblinking, "what is that doing here?"

"What is it?" asked Omi.

Chase snatched up the yoyo so swiftly that he spooked Clay into backing away. "The Yang Yoyo hasn't revealed itself for fifteen hundred years. Dashi hid it in the Ying Yang World." He frowned at the dragon. "So why do you have it?"

Eyes and nose watering, Dojo slid backwards down Chase's sleeve, distancing himself from the elder's glare. "Don't look at me! I can't control when the Shen Gong Wu reveal themselves! The Yoyos have always played by their own rules—"

"It's a Shen Gong Wu?" asked Jack.

"What's the Ying Yang World?" asked Kimiko.

"Yoyos, plural?" Clay said, pointing to Dojo's head. "Are there more in there?"

Master Monk Chase glanced up at his students as if he suddenly remembered they were there. Clearing his throat, he said, "It acts as a portal to another world." He winced at the way Jack's eyes lit up in fascination. "But it is of little use without its sister Shen Gong Wu, the Ying Yoyo—"

Dojo sneezed so loudly that the force flung him off of Chase's shoulder. When the others gathered around him, he rubbed at his reddening snout. "I think… I think another Shen Gong Wu just revealed itself."

Jack pointed at the Yang Yoyo. "You mean that one?"

"Uh-uh," said Dojo as his nose clogged. "This one makes me sneeze."

The monks all turned to their teacher, who was still busy staring at the Yang Yoyo like he planned to intimidate it into answering his unspoken questions. Finally, Kimiko said slowly, "I… guess I'll go get the scroll?"

Chase nodded without looking up at her. "Hmm? Yes…" He started a distracted walk back into the temple, leaving the other monks to shrug at each other.

"What was that about?" asked Raimundo.

"I can explain," said Dojo, his consonants barely understandable through his stuffed nose. Another sneeze blasted out of him in a burst of fire, sending the monks scurrying backwards. Rubbing at his snout, he coughed and said, "I'll… I guess I'll explain later… after my sinuses clear out."

* * *

While Dojo soared westward, Jack braced himself for his usual upset stomach, but the queasiness he had expected came in a far smaller dose than yesterday. He wondered if maybe he was getting used to Dojo's undulating. Meanwhile, Omi opened up the scroll and said, "Ah, the Sword of the Storm! I have studied this Shen Gong Wu for many years!"

"Many?" Jack cautiously leaned to get a better view of the tiny monk up front. "How old are you again?"

Omi ignored him. "There are things of which you must be aware when using this wind Shen Gong Wu. Though its blade will pass harmlessly through your opponent, it can be spun so swiftly that it can conjure fierce windstorms! Once an eligible warrior wields the sword—"

"Wait," said Raimundo, spurring the small monk to glance back at him, "this thing isn't even a real sword? You can't stab anyone with it?"

Omi raised a confused and somewhat alarmed eyebrow. "Um, no…?"

"I thought we were being trained on how to defeat evil," said Raimundo, crossing his arms. "How are we supposed to defeat anyone with a glorified box fan?"

"It is not a box fan!" Omi looked ready to smack the teen with the Shen Gong Wu scroll. "It is an ancient magical artifact! Its powers are far greater than any ordinary sword! I am sure it can easily be used to defeat evil when wielded by competent hands. After all, what makes a warrior strong is not the weapon, but the warrior holding the weapon!"

"Ugh." Raimundo hunched his shoulders and tugged at the front of his hood. "Sure, whatever. Sounds great."

An awkward silence followed, one that Kimiko tried to end by pointing at the approaching city. "Uh, check it out, Raimundo! That's Monte Carlo! You're gonna love it— You're from Rio, right?"

"I'm from Tubarão," Raimundo grumbled. "We moved to Rio when I was little, but that's not where I'm from."

"Oh. Um. You still like it there, right?"

"It sucks, actually."

"Ah." Kimiko leaned back, scooting away from the grumpy teenager and throwing her hands up in defeat. Clay shrugged and gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

Once Dojo landed at the beach next to the enormous city and let his passengers down, he shrank and sniffled. "Sorry, kids, I can't hone in on this one. You're on your own."

"A net cast wide catches more fish!" said Omi. To Jack, he added, "That means we should split up."

Jack snorted. "I gathered that, Cue Ball. Thanks."

Clay tipped his hat back and looked around at the barren beach. "We still haven't seen the likes o' Wuya anywhere. Maybe we oughta stick together 'til we have a better idea what we're gettin' into?"

"I like the splitting up idea better," said Raimundo, turning and walking away from the group without another word.

Omi stomped his foot and called after him, "We must decide these things as a team, Raimundo!"

Kimiko rested a hand on her hip and shook her head. "Do you think he's always like this, or did the obstacle course put him in a bad mood?"

"Aww, I reckon he'll be fine," said Clay with a shrug. "We can go find the Sword o' the Storm ourselves. Raimundo just needs to go chill awhile. I have no idea who spit in his cornflakes, but a lil time alone might do him some good."

* * *

Raimundo stomped across the beach, kicking up sand and grumbling to himself. Within his pockets, his fingernails dug into his palms. He came to a stop for a moment to gaze across the ocean, and he wondered if the weather was nice enough back home for his siblings to go surfing.

Then a very round man wearing maroon from head to toe passed the corner of Raimundo's vision, and he turned back to the beach with his eyebrows high. The man wore a long sword across his back, and his ninja outfit covered his entire body and face, leaving only his eyes exposed. He waddled down a hill, facing the ground as if searching for something. Raimundo silently strolled after him.

Just as the teen reached the top of the hill and peered down, the ninja yanked at what appeared to be a piece of driftwood in the sand. Raimundo studied the sword on his back, but before he could decide whether it was a Shen Gong Wu or not, the ninja yanked the object out of the sand, revealing it to be another sword. The new one gleamed gold and was shaped far too impractically for real combat.

Raimundo called down, "Hey. That's not yours." The ninja spun around, struck a battle stance, and squinted into the sun high behind the teen. When the man didn't speak, Raimundo continued, "Let me guess: you're one of Wuya's minions?"

The ninja blocked the sun with his gloved hand and huffed at the Dragon of Wind. " _Hai_! I am Tubbimurra, mighty warrior of the ninja arts! My employers hired me to retrieve the Sword of the Storm, and you will not stop me."

"More than one boss, huh?" Raimundo raised an eyebrow. "Obviously Wuya is one since you know what the Sword of the Storm is, but who are the others?"

"That is none of your concern."

"Why isn't Wuya fetching the Shen Gong Wu herself? Where is she?"

"Enough questions!" The ninja took a step back because even though he clearly outmatched this scrawny child, a subconscious part of him was becoming aware that even with all the sand and salt in the air, his opponent had not blinked once in their conversation. "I have what I came for, and I am leaving!"

Raimundo gave an exaggerated sigh. "Look, man, I don't really want the fake sword that bad, but I got a job to do." Casually stretching out his palm in front of him, he said, "So why don't you make things easier for everyone and hand it over?"

"Ha!" Tubbimurra pointed the Sword of the Storm at the teen and braced his knees. "I will not submit to the demands of a puny little boy!"

"That's a shame." With the sun high behind him, Raimundo's hood cast a shadow over his eyes. His head tilted, and a slow, sinister grin spread across his face. "Because by the time the tide rolls out… _you'll wish you had_."


	4. Chapter 4

Master Monk Chase stared down at the Yang Yoyo in his palm, wondering if any of the surrounding manuscripts of the scroll room could provide him with any wisdom. Though a part of him wished he had the Ancient Scroll of the Shen Gong Wu to consult, he knew the documents of the Ying and Yang Yoyo were missing from it. (Dojo had blamed a potato famine from the 1400s, but Chase suspected the real culprit had been one of the dragon's ill-timed fiery sneezes.) Besides, even if he had the missing pages, he doubted they would have told him anything he didn't already know.

Though Master Fung's footsteps were silent, Chase still sensed his presence when he strolled into the room. The elder asked, "Is something troubling you?" Chase tilted the yoyo to let the old master see it and add, "A Shen Gong Wu, I presume?"

"The Yang Yoyo is a portal," Master Monk Chase murmured, "but the Ying Yang World is far too dangerous and unpredictable for our young Xiaolin Dragons to enter. They have barely started training; they are not even apprentices yet."

Master Fung nodded solemnly. "It sounds like the wisest course of action, then, is to lock this Shen Gong Wu away until the young monks are ready for it."

"That's just the thing, though." Master Monk Chase gave the yoyo a hesitant spin. "Shen Gong Wu are meant to reveal themselves in a certain… order. That is how Dashi designed them: they appear when they are needed most. When the Fearsome Four assemble, the Emperor Scorpion reveals itself to control it. If Sibini were to escape, the Monarch Wings would appear to lure it out. If the Heylin Seed rose to power, the Moon Stone Locust would shortly follow."

Pretending to closely follow Master Monk Chase's train of thought, Master Fung wiped his puzzled frown from his face and asked, "Does every Shen Gong Wu have such a direct purpose?"

"Not necessarily." Master Monk Chase watched the yoyo spin innocently up and down its own string. "Most can be used against any opponent, good or evil. But some are more powerful than others, and it can be quite dangerous for Shen Gong Wu to fall into hands that aren't ready to wield them. That is why the first Shen Gong Wu to reveal itself is almost always the Mantis Flip Coin."

"The…? Ah, yes. It allows the holder to leap with the skill of a mantis."

"Which is something any experienced Xiaolin Dragon can already do," Master Monk Chase said with a nod and a smile. "But to a novice, the Mantis Flip Coin could be the difference between victory and defeat."

"So it reveals itself when it is needed most, when the Xiaolin Dragons are still beginners."

"Exactly."

Master Fung glanced over at the desk where the ancient scroll of the Shen Gong Wu usually rested. "And yet this generation's first reveals were the Moby Morpher and the Yang Yoyo. Do you think our young monks will need them to defeat an opponent in the near future?"

Three words Chase hated saying out loud fell reluctantly from his mouth, "I don't know." Fifteen hundred years later, and Dashi's superior, nonchalant understanding of the universe continued to vex him. How could Chase have lived for so many centuries and still not unravel the mysteries behind his old friend's favorite creations?

Master Fung held out a hand, and Master Monk Chase passed the Yang Yoyo to him. Holding it a little gingerly, the bearded elder said, "Nevertheless, if these two Shen Gong Wu are as perilous as you say, we must ensure they never fall into Heylin hands."

"That is my other concern, Master Fung: what Heylin hands are we keeping them from?"

Master Fung raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Master Monk Chase studied the Shen Gong Wu in Master Fung's hands. "Like every generation before them, our young monks have been summoned to the temple to protect the world from a great evil. But Hannibal Bean and Guan have been in hiding for years, and there has been no sign of Wuya since her supposed escape. If any of them were a threat, we would have seen them by now." Light from the torches in the room shimmered on the Yang Yoyo, flickering between the sharp contrasts of black and white. "Yet something has caused the balance of good and evil to shift, something so dangerous that the temple needs five Xiaolin Dragons to face it." Master Monk Chase's gaze lifted to match the other elder's. "If neither Hannibal, nor Guan, nor Wuya are the threat… then who is?"

* * *

Far too distant for the other four Xiaolin Dragons to hear, Tubbimurra's voice rang out in terror, "No—STAY BACK—" His voice cut off when his opponent knocked him facedown back into the sand. When he tried to heave himself back up, his bleeding arm nearly buckled. Panting, he grabbed the Sword of the Storm and flung it away from himself. "Keep the sword! I don't want it—"

The Sword of the Storm landed at Raimundo's feet. The teen swayed a bit before he kicked the Shen Gong Wu aside. With eyes as empty as poisoned water, he kept his gaze hard and fixed, pointing the ninja's own sword at him. His grin was gone.

Tubbimurra coughed while he tried to roll onto his uninjured side. "You can keep the other sword, too—I don't need it—" At Raimundo's complete lack of a response, the ninja clenched his fists and snarled, "My employers will find out about this— You will not escape them—"

A quick exhale escaped Raimundo like a half-hearted laugh, but he otherwise said nothing. He swirled Tubbimurra's sword above his own head, scattering flecks of blood in an arc before he sprang forward and struck.

* * *

"Has anyone seen Raimundo?" Omi asked, mouth curving downward. "I fear for his safety."

Holding his hands over the back of his neck, Jack gave a grumpy shrug. Though the four of them had combed the beach for half an hour, none of them had spotted any sign of a Shen Gong Wu. Jack was starting to wonder why anyone would willingly go to a beach for vacation. Not only was the sun frying his pasty skin, but he could feel the salt and sand caking everything he owned: his shoes, his binder, his hair, his pockets…

A shadow passed over his head. He gave a small yelp right before a large cowboy hat plopped onto him. "Wha—?"

"Sorry to spook ya, partner," said Clay, quietly adjusting the hat. "Figured this oughta help keep ya from gettin' sunburned too bad. You're a mite paler than the rest of us."

Jack tilted the brim to look up at his tall, muscular rescuer. If anyone asked, his heart totally did not skip any beats. "Oh, w-wow, thanks." Clearing his throat, he winked and added, "Though I bet I can't rock the look like you can, huh, handsome?"

He heard Omi make a gagging noise from the tide pool behind him. Clay, who seemed completely oblivious to Jack's flirting, did not have the chance to react before Kimiko pointed out the way they came and called, "Wait, I think Rai has the Sword of the Storm!"

The group turned just as Raimundo climbed over a sandy hill and slid down the other side toward them, holding a curved, golden sword. Jack squinted at the teen from under Clay's hat. Raimundo strolled to Omi, dropped the Shen Gong Wu in the smaller boy's hands, and muttered, "Found it."

"Great job, partner!" said Clay.

Wide-eyed, Omi watched the sunlight gleam off their new weapon. Head snapping up, he asked, "Where did you find it? Did you see Wuya anywhere? Did you have to fight anyone?"

"In the sand, no, and… nope." Raimundo gave a bland shrug.

Jack frowned and tilted his head. He had spent the better part of a decade building robots, and he was quite familiar with the fake, dead-eyed expression his creations always wore. He wasn't sure why, but something about Raimundo seemed just as empty.

"What happened to your shirt?" Kimiko pointed at Raimundo's hoodie. Though the rest of his clothes were dry, his top was completely soaked and had faint reddish stains on one side.

"I fell in the water," Raimundo mumbled, not blinking.

Eyeing the stains, Kimiko put a hand on her hip. "Did you, uh, strangle a fish while you were there?"

"Are you always this nosy?" Raimundo snapped, causing her good-natured smirk to drop. "I don't ask Jack where all the weird stains on his pants come from. I just figure stuff happens and it's none of my business."

"Easy there, partner." Clay stepped between the two and faced Raimundo with a calm frown. "The lil lady was just askin' a question. But we got the sword and that's what matters. No need to start a fuss over nothin'."

"It's motor oil," said Jack, gesturing to the stains on his knees, "in case anyone was curious."

No one paid Jack any attention. Dojo clambered onto Omi's shoulder and took a deep breath through his snout. "Hallelujah, my sinuses are cleared! Great job, kids!" He beamed at his five students, who remained in their awkward standstill for another moment before Raimundo broke eye contact with the others.

When Dojo sprang onto the beach and expanded to full size, Jack was the first to climb onto his back, eager to escape the heat and salt. Clay and Kimiko followed, and Raimundo took the back of the line. When they looked back at their smallest team member, Omi cleared his throat and called, "Sword of the Storm!" He twirled the Shen Gong Wu downward, and a sudden gust of wind tossed him into the air. He landed on Dojo with an easy front-flip, grinning from ear to ear.

When the dragon lifted from the ground and soared eastward, none of the monks thought to glance back to the beach. Perhaps if one of them had, they would have spotted the masked creature watching them go.

She shook her head in exasperation, and hazy purple tendrils drifted behind her like a head full of snakes. Transparent and unnoticed, she turned and coasted across the beach. Floating over a hill, she paused, and her yellow eyes drank in the aftermath of the battle for the Sword of the Storm. A slow grin spread across her mask, mouth as red as the blood spatter in the sand beneath her, and Wuya chuckled.


	5. Chapter 5

Several weeks after the Sword of the Storm's reveal, the Xiaolin Dragons in training still had yet to combat any Heylin opponents. Though several more Shen Gong Wu revealed themselves, including the Helmet of Jong, the Changing Chopsticks, the Shroud of Shadows, the Fist of Tebigong, the Two Ton Tunic, the Tangle Web Comb, and the Third Arm Sash, no bad guy arrived to challenge them. The other monks swiftly grew bored from the lack of action, but Jack was far too busy with his own projects to care.

Buzzing around inside the brain of his newest robot, yanking the wires around while bobbing his head to the music banging in his headphones, Jack normally wouldn't have heard anyone calling his name. Omi's voice, however, had always been exceptionally shrill and loud. "Jack Spicer! Where are you?"

With an eager grin, Jack spun and buzzed out of the robot. "Changing Chopsticks!" The tiny Shen Gong Wu glowed in his fist, and when he grew back to his original size, he landed on the floor of his bedroom with barely a stumble. Shutting off his helibot, he spread his arms wide. "Hey, Cue Ball! What do you think?"

Omi raised an eyebrow at the absolute mess of Jack's living quarters before he finally pointed at the contraption on Jack's back. "Were you flying just now?"

Jack spun and pointed over his shoulder at the helibot. "Yeah! My grandma gave it to me for my birthday when I was a kid! I had to redesign it a bit, and Master Fung told me I'm not allowed to use it anymore after I crashed into one of the elders- the one with all the nose hair, walks in a slump- but anyway, I figured what Master Fung doesn't know won't hurt him-"

Omi studied the circular dragon design on Jack's helibot before redirecting his attention to the piles of metal contraptions all over the floor. "Did your grandmother give you all of this as well?"

"Nope! I found it!"

Omi snorted. "You mean you stole it."

"Did not!" Jack had the nerve to sound offended at the very notion. Lifting a robotic torso from the pile against his dresser, he spun it to show the smaller monk. "I asked Dojo to take me to a few junk yards. I got all this for free! See this plating? It used to be part of a broken washing machine- And those three Jackbots over there were made from a really ugly orange car-"

"Jackbots?"

"I already told you: that's what I'm calling them! Gotta build a brand name, you know?" Jack shuffled across his mat, knocking aside the remaining chunks of a microwave. Grabbing a stack of blue papers off his desk, he spread them across what was left of the free floor space. "I've been redesigning the blueprints for years, but I never had the parts for them until now- I'll have to work on their energy consumption; they're eating through batteries in minutes-"

"Jack Spicer, your robotic contraptions will simply have to wait!" Omi gingerly stepped into the room, careful to avoid the pieces of Jack's precious would-be inventions. "Master Fung sent me to find you. He wants you to join the rest of us outside for another training session." Beaming, he added, "I believe the lesson today will be about tiger instincts!"

Jack rolled his eyes and grimaced. "Yippee."

* * *

Omi's prediction, as usual, proved to be absolutely correct. Out near the obstacle course, Master Fung opened a chest full of all their Shen Gong Wu, sending Jack a reproachful side-eye when the redhead tried to sneakily toss in the Changing Chopsticks without getting spotted. As the five young monks leaned forward in interest, the elder said, "In today's training, we will divide the Shen Gong Wu among you. The exercise is called-"

Grinning ecstatically, Omi waved his hand up high and answered, "Xiaolin Surprise!"

"Sounds like an appetizer," said Clay. Kimiko and Jack smirked. Raimundo stood a bit behind the four of them, peering out into the distance and looking immensely bored.

Undeterred by Clay's light quip, Master Fung continued,"This is an advanced training technique that relies on a powerful inner force called-"

Omi's hand shot up again. "The instincts of the tiger!"

Jack leaned down and whispered at the youngest monk's ear, "Know-it-all."

Omi said loudly, "Better to know all than to know nothing, Jack Spicer. If you were truly a genius, you would agree with me. But if you believe I am hogging the spotlight, perhaps you can tell us what tiger instincts are?" He looked up to give Jack a bright little grin.

Jack gritted his teeth in a false smile back at the youngest monk. When he realized that Master Fung and the others were silently waiting for him to meet Omi's challenge, he straightened his back and said, "Well, uh, they're kinda like psychic powers? Except not really because, uh... It's about predicting stuff, except you're using your gut instead of your brain...?"

The other young monks stared blankly at him. He sent a nervous glance toward Master Monk Chase, who stood a bit further away from the group with Dojo on his shoulder. Chase nodded in approval, and Jack's fake smile relaxed into a genuine one.

Clay put a finger to his chin. "So they're like some sort o' intuition?"

"Essentially, yes," said Master Fung. "To harness the tiger instincts is to know what will happen before it happens. Jack, Omi, would you two care to demonstrate?"

With a delighted giggle, Omi sprang toward the sparring circle. Jack followed with less enthusiasm, but once they were facing each other in the ring, he cracked his knuckles and narrowed his eyes. "You're going down, Cheddar Head."

Omi bowed. "I admire your confidence, Jack!" He casually spun on his heels to face away from his opponent, hands up in a dismissive shrug. "It must be difficult to maintain your hope for victory against me when you have never achieved it before!"

With a huff, Jack spun around and rested his hands on his hips while Master Fung set all the Shen Gong Wu in the center of the ring. Jack knew he only had a second to choose a weapon, and with Omi's speed and skill, Jack had no hope of beating him in one-on-one combat, not unless...

"Choose your Shen Gong Wu!" Master Fung called.

Jack whirled around and yanked up the shimmering cloth in the pile. "Shroud of Shadows!" As the black and silver fabric covered his body, he disappeared on the field. He bent his knees, ready to charge the small monk- Omi couldn't fight an opponent he couldn't see-

But when he looked across the circle, Omi pointed his choice of Shen Gong Wu and called, "Sword of the Storm!" The blade spun in his hands, and a massive gust coasted across the field, smacking into Jack like a tidal wave. Jack shrieked and flew back, and the wind yanked the Shroud of Shadows right from his hands. When his back hit the dirt, Omi dashed forward, sprang onto his chest, and tapped him on the nose. "Victory is mine."

Jack shoved a palm into Omi's face and pushed him off. As the littler monk trotted back to the center of the ring, Master Fung nodded and said, "Winner advances. Clay?"

In attempt to preserve his remaining dignity, Jack kept his walk at a casual stroll while he and Clay passed each other. Dusting off his robes (which he'd finally found under a pile of candy wrappers and pudding cups in a back corner of his bedroom), he glanced over at Raimundo, who was still staring out into space and seemed completely uninterested in the ensuing training session.

After Omi and Clay bowed to each other and turned away, Master Fung called, "Choose!"

"Two Ton Tunic!" Clay hollered, crouching into a defensive stance while the impenetrable armor hardened around his torso.

"Tangle Web Comb!" Thick ropes burst from Omi's choice of Shen Gong Wu, wrapping around both Clay and the immensely heavy armor. The poor cowboy swayed and toppled like an oak tree. Omi sprang to Clay's side and patted the ropes until they unwound and vanished.

With a cough, Clay sat up. Once he was on his feet, he offered Omi a handshake. "Whew, you sure are quick on the draw, lil partner."

"Thank you, my friend in the ten-gallon hat!" Omi gleefully accepted Clay's hand and bounced on the soles of his feet. "I could never be certain until now whether my victories were due to my excellence or to Jack's incompetence, but since I have defeated you as well, I know my tiger instincts are without flaw!"

Jack huffed again. Clay sheepishly scratched at his hair. "Oh. Uh. Happy to help."

Perhaps taking note of Raimundo's complete lack of interest, Master Fung narrowed his eyes at the broody teen and said, "Winner advances. Raimundo, would you care to join us?"

Raimundo shrugged and walked into the sparring circle with hands in his pockets. When he stopped in front of Omi, he frowned and asked, "Wait, how old are you?"

Omi blinked up at him. "Um. I am not entirely certain... Jack likes to celebrate my birthday in February, but..." He tilted his head. "Why do you ask?"

Raimundo grimaced and took a half-step back. "I don't like beating up little kids."

At the edge of the ring, Jack guffawed. Omi's face flushed scarlet, and he said coolly, "Do not concern yourself with something that has no chance of happening." Without bowing, he spun away and crossed his arms. After giving an exasperated sigh, Raimundo mirrored him.

"Choose!" called Master Fung.

Raimundo turned just enough to grab his choice of Shen Gong Wu and set it on his head. Back still facing his opponent, he said, "Helmet of Jong."

At the same time, Omi whirled around and yelled, "Third Arm Sash!"

The cloth appendage flew out from his waist, but right before it could make contact with Raimundo's head, the taller teen dodged to the side. When the sash shot past him, Raimundo reached out and snatched it. Jack had just enough time to gasp in shock before Raimundo yanked the Shen Gong Wu and flung Omi across the field. With a startled yelp, Omi hit the dirt and rolled to a stop.

Raimundo's hands went back into his pockets. For a moment, everyone else on the field was too surprised to react. Then Jack raised his arms over his head and let out what could only be described as a victory screech. "THE MIGHTY TIGER HAS FALLEN TO THE BETA BRAWN! WOOOOOOOOOO!"

Sputtering, Omi jumped back to his feet. Eyes round, gawking as if the entire universe had just betrayed him, he pointed at Raimundo and said, "But- but- how did you-?"

Barely audible through Jack's cheering, Raimundo shrugged and said, "I dunno, I just picked a useful one."

Master Monk Chase took a step forward and asked gently, "Omi, do you want to try again?"

Face reddening once more, Omi straightened his back and clenched his fists. "No! Thank you, master, but I am quite fine! I can accept defeat most graciously!" Avoiding Raimundo's eye contact, he stomped off the field.

"Winner advances," said Master Fung. "Kimiko?"

Tossing her pigtails with a flick of her hand, Kimiko walked past Jack, who was now grinning so hard that his face hurt. When she and Raimundo faced each other, they gave stiff, short bows before turning around.

"Choose!" said Master Fung.

Raimundo spun around and slammed his choice of Shen Gong onto his hand. "Fist of Tebigong!"

"Tangle Web Comb!" called Kimiko. The ropes sprang from the comb once again, and Raimundo's feet shifted in the dirt to jump away. However, right before the ropes could reach him, they froze in midair. Fist still raised, Raimundo stared while the ropes whirled around and latched onto Kimiko instead. She shrieked and dropped, completely entangled in her own weapon.

"Oh dear," said Master Monk Chase, slowly shaking his head.

Kicking frantically, Kimiko rolled to face Raimundo. "How did you do that?"

Raimundo lowered his Fist of Tebigong before he shook his head at Kimiko. "I didn't do anything. Maybe you're not using your Wu right."

Kimiko opened her mouth to argue, but the ropes tightened around her chest, and her breath came out in a squeak. While Master Monk Chase moved toward her and she stubbornly kicked herself away from him, Clay pointed at Raimundo's fist and called, "Uh, partner, were you about to punch her?"

Raimundo pulled off the Fist of Tebigong and tossed it back into the chest. "Yeah, so?"

Clay's mouth fell open in horror. "You can't hit a girl!"

Raimundo rolled his eyes. "Tell that to one of my big sisters. They'll knock you into a coma."

"I DON'T NEED HELP!" Kimiko shrieked, toppling onto her back a second time to avoid Master Monk Chase's assistance. "I just need to practice!" As Omi approached her from the opposite side, she hoisted herself up to a sitting position and shouted at the small monk, "It worked for you just fine! Why isn't it working for me? You broke it!"

"I did no such thing!" Omi said, stepping back and scowling.

Meanwhile, Jack spotted Raimundo strolling away from the obstacle course, hands in his pockets. Raimundo stole a glance back to check that Master Fung and Master Monk Chase were too preoccupied with Kimiko before he ducked around a corner. Jack raised an eyebrow. Looking around to confirm that everyone else was indeed distracted by Kimiko's predicament, he trotted after the other teen. Darting around the same corner, he called, "Hey, wait up!"

Raimundo whirled around, muscles coiled for battle. When he saw his pursuer, though, he let out a breath and pulled out of his fight stance. "Oh, it's just you."

"Where do you think you're going, Tiger Slayer?" Grinning, Jack nudged him with an elbow. Raimundo wrinkled his nose at the physical contact. "Pretty sure Master Fung doesn't want us leaving until he dismisses us."

"Yeah, well, I won the exercise, so I didn't see a reason to stick around. Didn't really learn anything-"

Kimiko's distant voice drowned out the rest of Raimundo's sentence. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'JUST A GIRL'?"

"Wow," said Raimundo, side-eyeing in the general direction of the obstacle course. "Wanna take bets on when Kimiko will rip Clay's head off? I thought the guy was just a chivalrous idiot, not-"

"Actually, I bet that was Omi." Jack chuckled at Raimundo's raised eyebrows. "He's kinda confused when it comes to girls. He's never lived with one, see? It's just a bunch of old geezers here. Plus he found this book a few years ago called The Ancient Guide to Females. No idea where it came from, but it's this massive satire about gender roles and stuff, but I think he missed the 'satire' part."

"Hmm."

As Raimundo's eyes started to cloud in disinterest again, Jack waved his palms and said, "But anyway! The kid is way too full of himself, so watching you throw him across the course was the coolest thing I've ever seen! Knocked him down a peg, that's for sure! How'd you do it?"

Raimundo gave a bored shrug. "It's not that hard. Omi's quick for his age, but he's still just a little kid, and anyone who can't outmatch a little kid probably doesn't belong here anyway."

"Heh." Jack's gaze flickered to the ground.

Raimundo frowned when he saw a muscle in Jack's jaw twitch. After a slow blink, the dull green in his eyes suddenly flickered with alarm. "Well, I mean- in your case- Uh- You're at a disadvantage because... um..."

Jack gave the most casual shrug he could muster, ignoring how sore his shoulders felt from landing on his back earlier. "Hey, man, water off a duck's back. Don't worry about it."

To Jack's immense surprise, Raimundo's face flushed with embarrassment. He cleared his throat and scratched at his hair for a second, but then he furrowed his eyebrows and narrowed his eyes at Jack. "Why are you here, anyway?"

"Me?" Jack blinked. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're just kinda stuck here, right? Because of your... parents? It's not like you wanted to be here."

Jack's mouth fell open. "Are you kidding? Why wouldn't I want to be here? I'm training to be one of the coolest, most amazing warriors the world has ever seen!" His whole face lit up at the possibilities. "I'm gonna be a Xiaolin Dragon of Metal! I'm gonna have magic powers, and I'm gonna kick all kinds of evil butt!"

"You? Kicking butt?" Raimundo looked Jack up and down, mouth curling at the corner in what Jack refused to interpret as pity. "Dude, I'm sorry the other people living here haven't tried to burst your bubble for your sake, but you're gonna have the snot beaten out of you. You can't even handle that stupid obstacle course out back; how are you gonna face off against an actual bad guy?"

Jack squared his shoulders. "Here's the thing about metal: you can bend and beat it all day long, but it's tougher than you think it is. I'm the same way! If the bad guys show up and kick my butt, then I'll just have to get up and try again! Metal can do amazing things, and so can I!"

"You're not the hero type, Jack," said Raimundo with a dismissive shake of his head, "and even if you were, this place is a waste of your time. None of these magic doodads or your robot toys will make you a warrior, not against the real evils out there."

Jack opened his mouth to start a heated defense over his robot toys, but then he paused at the rest of Raimundo's statement. Tilting his head, he frowned and asked, "But if this place is such a waste of time, then why are you here?"

Raimundo stared at him, expression suddenly guarded. Before he could come up with an answer, he glanced back behind Jack just as Master Monk Chase came around the corner and said, "Jack, please return the Shroud of Shadows. As I have told you repeatedly, the Shen Gong Wu are not toys, and you cannot have them out without our permission."

Jack pivoted. "What? The Shroud of Shadows? I don't..."

Master Monk Chase sighed, trying his best to mask his impatience. "You were the last one to use it, and it's no longer in the chest with the other Shen Gong Wu. Please return it at once."

"But I don't have it." Jack glanced back toward the sparring circle, thinking back to his match with Omi. "I might, uh, I might have dropped it...?" He trotted past Master Monk Chase and back to the ring.

Someone had finally managed to free Kimiko, who sat with her arms and legs crossed near the chest of Shen Gong Wu, scowling at anyone who made eye contact with her. Clay bravely crouched at her side and said, "Aww shucks, I wouldn't worry too hard 'bout it, Kimiko. I'm sure you'll get the hang o' that comb without too much trouble."

"I'm not worried," Kimiko snapped.

Wandering around the ring, Jack glanced out toward the obstacle course and put his hands on his hips. Omi had blasted him with the Sword of the Storm, the Shroud of Shadows had flown from his hands, and then... what? He couldn't remember putting it away, but then wouldn't it still be out here on the ground somewhere? "Um... I don't know what to tell ya, Chase... Maybe it's still invisible?"

Atop Master Monk Chase's shoulders, Dojo shook his head and said, "Not likely. The Shroud of Shadows only turns invisible when someone is using it."

Clay glanced over and stood to join them. "The Shroud of Shadows? Jack had that Shen Gong Wu a minute ago."

"Yeah, but I don't have it anymore!"

"Jack," said Omi, tugging at his friend's robes. "Borrowing things without permission is one thing, but lying to your teachers is another. If Master Monk Chase and Master Fung want the Shroud of Shadows back, you should return it."

"But I don't have it!" Jack spread his arms out wide, eyes round. "Doesn't anyone believe me?"

Omi's mouth pressed into a thin line. Clay nervously tugged at his hat, and Kimiko drummed her fingers on her knees. Master Fung waited near the chest of Shen Gong Wu, hands folded in front of him. Master Monk Chase studied Jack quizzically, but before he could answer, a voice called from behind the group, "Jack doesn't have it."

They all turned to look at Raimundo, who pointed into the sparring circle. "Jack came straight back to the rest of us after he lost, and he stood right in front of me. I could hear him laughing and cheering from the same spot while I was sparring, and then he followed me while you guys were dealing with the Tangle Web Comb. If he had wandered off to get that shroud thing, I would have noticed."

Kimiko's eyes narrowed. "Why were you watching Jack that closely?"

"I watch everyone," Raimundo said bluntly, as if the answer was obvious.

"Did you see where the Shroud of Shadows went, by any chance?" asked Omi.

"No. I didn't think it was that important." Raimundo glowered at Master Monk Chase. "Especially not important enough to humiliate one of your own students in front of everyone just because you lost track of it."

Master Monk Chase's eyes widened in surprise. Jack's hand flew to his mouth, and Dojo nearly toppled off the elder's shoulder in his effort to spin around and snap, "Hey! Show some respect, you little-!"

Master Monk Chase raised a palm, and the dragon huffed but turned silent. The elder said, "Perhaps he is right, Dojo." He turned to Jack. "I apologize, young monk. If you say you do not have the Shroud of Shadows, then it is my duty as your teacher to believe you."

Omi, Clay, and Kimiko glanced aside at each other, clearly doubtful. Still, Jack gave Raimundo a grateful smile before he shrugged at Master Monk Chase and said, "Hey, don't worry about it. I wouldn't trust me, either."

"But if Jack doesn't have it," said Kimiko, standing up, "then where did it go?"

"Omi must've blew it away further than he thought," said Clay. "I reckon it's 'round here somewhere."

Omi nodded thoughtfully. "My skills with the Sword of the Storm are quite impressive."

"Nonetheless," said Master Fung, stepping forward, "Heylin forces are surely waiting for a chance to obtain the Shen Gong Wu themselves. We must be far more careful to prevent them from falling into evil hands."

Master Monk Chase strolled to one side of the chest. "Master Fung and I shall return the rest of the Shen Gong Wu to the vault. Young monks, please search for the Shroud of Shadows." With a wink, he added, "Whoever finds it will not have to do their chores today."

All five students visibly perked and took off into the obstacle course. Chase chuckled and shook his head, but then his mouth curved downward, and he peered up into the sky. A few small birds flitted near the gardens. None of them were crows. No parrot, either. Still, he had a feeling the Shroud of Shadows hadn't drifted away on its own.


	6. Chapter 6

Since no one managed to find the Shroud of Shadows, Jack grumbled through his afternoon chores, muttering about child labor laws. Late that night, he crafted the blueprints for a Maid-bot 13.0, but his attempts to build the robot came to a rude stop when Kimiko threw one of her shoes down the hallway and shouted, "Some of us are trying to sleep, Jack! Knock it off with the blowtorch!" Kicking aside his half-assembled bot, he crawled into bed and silently vowed to find some sort of secret location to craft his inventions in peace. A lair, if you will.

The next morning, Omi dragged Jack from his bed by the ankles, as per tradition. Jack trudged to the kitchen and passed Clay and Kimiko at the table. Neither teammate seemed to notice him. Clay, for once, was not paying much attention to his breakfast.

"It's like a state o' mind, I reckon," he said. "It'll likely be a bit tougher for you since you're a mite more, uh, passionate than the rest of us."

"Master Fung said I need to 'quiet the storm of my mind,'" said Kimiko, frowning. "What does that even mean?"

"I'm bettin' it means that you got a lot to think about, and maybe you're worried or scared about stuff-"

Kimiko bristled. "I don't get scared."

"Alright then," Clay said placidly, "but there's a lot goin' on in your head, right? I reckon Master Fung is sayin' that you need to figure out how to focus on one problem at a time. Like yesterday, when you got stuck in the Tangle Web Comb, you were upset you were stuck, but you were also upset because Master Chase was tryin' to help, and you were mad at Omi, and you were worried that Jack would make fun o' you-"

Face turning scarlet, Kimiko scowled. "You got a point to make here, cowboy?"

"As a matter o' fact, I do: you were thinkin' and worryin' about so many things at once that you were too distracted to solve your problem. It ain't a bad thing to think about a lot o' stuff; it's like... multitasking, you know? But sometimes it's better to let the lil things slide."

"So, like..." Kimiko pursed her lips, "if I hadn't been trying so hard to argue with Master Chase and Omi, I could have gotten out of the Tangle Web Comb on my own?"

Clay nodded. "I reckon so. I don't blame you for havin' a hard time with it, though. It's tough to focus when somethin's frustratin' you. I figure you just need practice."

"Hmm." Kimiko's frown faded. "That's... not bad advice, actually. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to get better at, like, not getting angry, but..."

"Well, you can't control gettin' angry," Clay said with a shrug. "All you can control is what you do 'bout it."

Kimiko gave a mildly impressed smile. "You know, you're actually pretty smart, considering..."

Clay raised an eyebrow. "Considerin' what?"

"Considering how you're usually so quiet." Kimiko playfully elbowed him, and he smiled shyly in response.

Chewing on a banana, Jack decided to announce his presence tactfully. "So are you two gonna kiss or what?"

Kimiko and Clay jumped a bit in their seats before spinning to face him, red-faced. Clay sputtered, "W-we were certainly not-"

"WE'VE BEEN ROBBED!" Dojo scampered into the kitchen, sprang onto the table, and crashed into Clay's pancakes and bacon. Dramatically grabbing onto Clay's neckerchief, the dragon said, "Someone broke into the temple vault!"

* * *

"Who could have done this?" Omi peered down the stairs, anxiously twiddling his fingers while Master Fung and Master Monk Chase puzzled over the empty drawers. "Perhaps Wuya has finally begun her quest of evil?"

"It is possible, young monk." Master Fung plucked the Changing Chopsticks from its drawer. "Though I am puzzled by our thief's decision to only take a few of our Shen Gong Wu, rather than all of them."

"It was never Wuya's style to sneak around unseen," murmured Master Monk Chase, studying the Yang Yoyo in his palm. "Either this was the work of someone else, or something has rendered her powerless."

"Which Wu are missing?" asked Raimundo, standing next to Omi with his arms crossed.

"The Helmet of Jong, the Two-Ton Tunic, the Third Arm Sash, and the Fist of Tebigong." Master Monk Chase opened another drawer to confirm that the Moby Morpher was still there. "Along with the Shroud of Shadows, which disappeared yesterday."

Omi gasped. "The thief must have used the Shroud of Shadows to steal the rest of our Shen Gong Wu!"

"It would explain why they waited until now to make a move," said Raimundo, eyes narrowing. "Is there a connection between the four that got stolen? Maybe that's why the thief took them and nothing else?"

Master Fung raised an eyebrow at the sharp intake of breath from Master Monk Chase, who looked up at the two younger monks and said, "Perhaps our thief is attempting to summon Mala Mala Jong."

Raimundo frowned. "What's a mala mala jong?"

Master Monk Chase walked back up the circular staircase until he was eye level with the two young monks. "Mala Mala Jong is the name of an ancient warrior whose spirit was corrupted centuries ago at the passing of the Heylin Comet. His spirit dwells within the Heart of Jong, but he can create a body of his own out of any Shen Gong Wu he possesses."

"What is the Heart of Jong?" asked Omi. "Is that one of Wuya's weapons?"

"Wait." Raimundo's eyebrows went up. "All the missing Wu are body parts: a head, a torso, a hand, and an arm. All this thing needs is a set of legs and feet-"

Master Monk Chase gave an impressed nod. "Precisely."

The four turned to the doorway at the sound of panting. Breathing heavily, Dojo slithered inside and opened his mouth to speak, but Master Fung cut him off, "Dojo, where are the other monks? I asked you to bring them here."

Dojo grinned nervously. "Heh. Yep, I was working on that, but uh, we sorta... got sidetracked." He pointed back behind him. "We have a temple visitor."

Omi gasped and sprang forward, raising his fists for battle. "Who is it? The thief? Wuya? A dark force of evil?"

Dojo grimaced. "Not exactly..."

* * *

"It's a mighty purty temple, Clay," said Mr. Bailey, elbowing his son, "but it don't look like the kind o' trainin' I had in mind when I let you come here." He cast a judgmental look toward the elderly monks practicing tai chi out on the grassy field in front of them.

Jack and Kimiko sent nervous glances at each other. Neither of them had expected Clay's dad to make a sudden appearance at the temple doorstep, and they didn't really know what to do with the situation. Personally, Jack was pleasantly surprised that Clay's father would care enough to visit, considering how few memories he had of his own father. On the other hand, Jack had never seen Clay look this uncomfortable before, and he didn't know what to make of that, either.

Clay said meekly, "Daddy, there's more to it than-"

"Where are your teachers?" Mr. Bailey scanned the line of elderly monks, looking for someone he recognized. "I reckon I need to have a talk with 'em about takin' you back home to the ranch."

At Clay's crestfallen expression, Jack cut in, "Wait! But uh, Clay's been kicking so much butt here!"

Mr. Bailey turned to Jack and looked him up and down, wrinkling his nose at the boy's eyeliner. "Has he now?"

"Yeah!" said Jack, ignoring Kimiko frantically shaking her head out of Mr. Bailey's line of sight. "He's faster than anyone else at the obstacle course. He blew Omi's record out of the water, and Omi's been here for years!" Encouraged by Mr. Bailey's mildly pleased smile, Jack added, "A-and after Wuya starts showing her face, he'll probably kick her butt, too!"

Mr. Bailey's smile dropped, and Kimiko smacked her own forehead. The man turned to Clay, who wilted a little when his father asked, "So you're fightin' ladies now?"

"No, sir!" Clay made a timid effort to square his shoulders. "And I don't plan to start, sir."

"Your teachers told me you'd be trainin' to face some sort o' evil. So who exactly are ya fightin'?"

The three teens turned awkwardly silent, and then Clay finally admitted, "No one at the moment, sir. We aren't really sure why the Heylin side isn't goin' after the Shen Gong Wu, but-"

Mr. Bailey shook his head. "Sounds like you'd be a lot more useful back at the ranch, Clay, since you ain't doin' anythin' important here."

Kimiko scowled but said nothing. As the man spoke, Master Monk Chase and Master Fung came from around the corner with Raimundo and Omi trotting behind them. Jack shrugged helplessly at Clay, who said, "But the hunt for the Shen Gong Wu is important!"

Mr. Bailey frowned at his son. "More important than listenin' to your daddy?"

Clay bowed his head. "No, sir."

"You must be Clay's father," said Master Monk Chase, giving the man a bow and a smile that seemed a tiny bit forced. "To what do we owe the honor of your visit?"

Mr. Bailey straightened his back to tower over the other two adults. "Clay and I were just discussin' how he's spent enough time here and is ready to come home."

If Master Monk Chase's smile hadn't been fake before, it certainly was now. "Oh? I would hate to lose him so quickly, especially after all the improvements he has made in his skill and confidence. But if he wants to leave, then I certainly won't force him to stay."

"No, I reckon you won't," said Mr. Bailey, putting his hands on his hips. "As long as Clay is livin' under my roof, he follows my rules."

"With all due respect," said Master Monk Chase through a thinly veiled glower, "Clay is currently living under my roof."

Mr. Bailey crossed his arms and huffed, "Well, I reckon that'll be endin' today, won't it?"

Master Fung stepped between them and said calmly, "What Master Monk Chase means to say is that the Xiaolin have always taught respect for the ways of the elders. If you wish for your son to return, we will allow it."

Master Monk Chase and Mr. Bailey continued to glare at each other until the latter finally turned to his son. "You heard him, Clay. You're comin' back home to Texas where you belong. Say goodbye to your pals, and we'll start packin' your stuff."

Clay's shoulders sagged. "Yes, sir." As Master Fung led Mr. Bailey up into the dorms, the younger cowboy turned to the others. With a sheepish shrug, he said, "Well, uh, guess I'm rollin' outta here." Rather than wait for any farewells, he pulled his hat down and started to trot after his father.

Face flushing, Kimiko darted after him. "Clay, wait!" When he paused and glanced back, she stopped and flailed her hands for a second. "Um- I'll, uh, I'll practice that stuff you said. About focusing. With the Tangle Web Comb. Okay?" She beamed up at him.

"O-oh." Clay scratched at his hair, shifting his hat. "That'll be good, I reckon."

Kimiko nodded and fiddled with one of her pigtails. "But, like, the stuff about letting things slide, that's like... choosing your battles. Which means you let some stuff go, but you still have to fight sometimes, right?"

Clay blinked at her. "I, uh... I guess, yeah."

"Then, um, I'll keep working on choosing my battles," She winked at him, "if you work on choosing yours. Got it?"

He smiled meekly, blushed, and ducked his head. "Oh. Gotcha. I'll... I reckon I'll work on that. Thanks, Kimiko." He shuffled his feet and glanced up at the rest of the group. "And uh, thank you, Master Monk Chase, for trying to keep me here. You too, Jack."

Jack gave him a thumbs up but had no idea what else to say. When his own parents had been alive, they had never made any attempt to control him. On the surface, kindergartner Jack had considered it a blessing: he could eat as much candy, break as many toys, or taunt as many classmates as he wanted. He could wander away from home and get lost for days, and his parents wouldn't even ground him when he returned. In fact, they rarely noticed at all. Clay's dad was overbearing, but at least he seemed to care.

"I stand by what I said, Clay," said Master Monk Chase. "You are a bright student, and I believe you could accomplish great things here. But my opinion has no bearing on the path you choose in life, nor should your father's. Your destiny is your own. Remember that." He smiled. "And keep practicing your tai chi. Send letters if you have questions."

"Yes, sir," said Clay with a nod. Jack glanced at the silent members of the group. Omi had his eyebrows furrowed, but Jack had a feeling he was firmly on Master Fung's side in this situation. Raimundo had his mouth pressed into a thin line and studied the ground, avoiding eye contact. Jack had no idea what was going on in his head.

After another awkward, confused moment, the group made their way back into the temple and reluctantly helped the cowboy pack his belongings. Before anyone could come up with a more heartfelt farewell, Clay's father shuffled his son out the temple, and five became four.

* * *

"Cheer up, kids," said Dojo a few days later, landing outside a bamboo forest and waiting for the young monks to disembark. Jack slid down and braced his knees once he hit solid ground, but thankfully the usual nausea passed after a few seconds. "I'm sure Clay's doing fine back home."

"He's probably better off." Raimundo jumped from the dragon and stuffing his hands in his pockets. "He gets to hang out with his family while the rest of us are stuck on a glorified scavenger hunt."

"No one's forcing you to stay, cranky pants," snarled Kimiko. "Why don't you and Clay trade spots, if it sucks so much to hang out with us?"

"We must focus on the task at hand!" Omi jumped between the two glaring teens and waved the Shen Gong Wu scroll in the air. "Remember what Master Fung and Master Chase said about Mala Mala Jong. Whoever stole our Shen Gong Wu still needs a pair of feet, which means it is imperative that we get the Jetbootsu ourselves!"

"Not like we'll have any trouble with that," said Raimundo, breaking eye contact from Kimiko and starting to stroll toward the forest. "No one's tried to fight us for a Wu before. Why would today be any different?"

The sound of bamboo cracking in the woods made him pause. The monks looked up, and out of the shadows emerged a man with the most chiseled jaw Jack had ever seen. Beetle-browed and bald, he towered over the young monks. Over one extremely wide shoulder draped a thin garland of skulls, and the enormous glaive in his hand pointed directly at Raimundo's throat.

"Xiaolin Warriors," he said, "we meet at last."


	7. Chapter 7

To his credit, Raimundo barely flinched at the blade near his neck. He stared at the man like a tomcat eyeing a growling dog in his territory, cold and calculating. Jack scooted closer to Kimiko, acutely aware of his lack of robotic back-up or a cowboy to hide behind. Perhaps oblivious to the tension in the clearing, Omi stepped forward and said, "Greetings, honorable stranger. Those shoes are of grave importance to us. May we please have them?"

Bewildered at Omi's words, Jack glanced down. He had been so distracted by the man's giant glaive and gorilla-like arms, he hadn't even noticed the pair of metallic shoes in his other clenched fist.

"Omi!" Dojo curled near Jack's ankles, eyes round. "That's Heylin Warlord Guan!"

Omi's outstretched hand clenched, and his legs carefully shifted under him into a battle stance. Jack tried and failed to contain a small squeak, but Kimiko stared blankly, and Raimundo said, "Who?"

"Heylin Warlord Guan!" Dojo repeated, digging his tiny claws into Jack's mismatched socks. "Servant to Master Monk Chase's evilest enemy, Hannibal Roy Bean!"

"Who?" Raimundo asked again, granting the large man an unimpressed frown.

Guan audibly snarled and peered down at Dojo. "Chase's pet calling me a servant? You're lucky I have no need for more soup today, Dojo Kanojo Cho." He spat out the dragon's name like spoiled meat. As his attention shifted, his spear's point edged away from Raimundo.

Omi puffed out his chest. "Warlord Guan, for your own safety, I advise that you surrender the Jetbootsu at once."

"I see Chase's newest ducklings take after him," Guan said, cracking a sneer at the smallest monk. "He was always exceptionally arrogant." His spear tilted to point at Omi, and Raimundo watched it move with an odd, conflicted expression of alarm.

"We take after him in skill as well," said Omi, matching Guan's smile with his own, "as you shall soon discover in your humiliating defeat!" Nine glowing dots appeared on his forehead, and he sprang into action. "Water!"

Before Guan could thrust the spear, Omi grabbed onto it and yanked his own body forward, using the weapon as leverage to kick off the ground and fly at Guan's face. Guan swatted him aside, and the small monk smacked into the bamboo. Jack stumbled back in shock, and Raimundo's eyes widened. Leaping into battle, Kimiko cried out, "Fire!" She landed a kick on Guan's arm and bounced right off of him, completely ineffective.

Jumping back to his feet, Omi pulled something out of his pocket. "Changing Chopsticks!" He aimed the Shen Gong Wu at his palm, and the Sword of the Storm expanded in his hand to full size. While Kimiko dodged a thrust of Guan's spear, Omi called, "Sword of the Storm!" Charging back into battle, he cast a gust of wind to send him into the air. With a front flip, he landed right on Guan's skull.

Guan barely winced. He swung his closed fist upward, but Omi summoned the sword and flew into the air again. At the same time, Kimiko pulled a Shen Gong Wu from her own pocket and yelled, "Tangle Web Comb!" Ropes sprang from the comb and shot out at Guan, but they wavered in the air before they could reach. Kimiko gritted her teeth, but before the ropes could pick a definite target, Guan swung his spear and sliced them out of his way.

As Omi landed another kick on Guan's head, Raimundo dashed toward the two. Bending his legs and skidding to a stop at Guan's feet, he yanked something out of his sleeve and sliced it through the back of Guan's ankle. Guan finally stumbled, grunted in pain, and dropped the Jetbootsu. Raimundo planted a foot against Guan's leg to push himself out of harm's way, and when he rolled back onto his feet, he held a bloody switchblade.

Kimiko paused to gawk at him. "You have a knife?"

Raimundo glanced at her. "You don't?"

"Jack Spicer!" Omi called, clinging to each of Guan's ears. "Get the Jetbootsu!"

With a start, Jack realized he had been standing motionless for several seconds. "R-right!" He ran to the dropped shoes, scooped them up, and dodged one of Guan's swinging arms with a shriek. Baring his teeth, Guan spun to face him. Jack stammered, "M- Met-"

Guan opened his mouth and roared. Omi tumbled down with a squeal, and several horns sprouted out of Guan's head. A mud-colored, thorny exoskeleton encased his skin. His arms somehow grew even bigger, morphing into enormous lobster claws. His jaw unhinged, his eyes turned scarlet, and the newly formed monster bellowed down at the petrified monks.

Jack screamed and fled.

"Jack- Jack Spicer-" Omi staggered backward as Guan's webbed tail swung past him. With an audible gulp, Omi squared his shoulders and yelled, "Sword of the Storm!" The wind tossed him back up, but one of Guan's massive pincers snatched him out of the air. Omi yelped and flailed, flattening the Sword of the Storm against his own body and perpendicular to the pincers clamped around his torso. While Guan's grip tightened, the sword's width kept Omi from being sliced in half.

Raimundo leaped onto Guan's back and stabbed the switchblade into his shoulder. The blade snapped against the exoskeleton. Guan spun in place, swinging Omi around with him as he tried to reach back and grab Raimundo. Kimiko jumped and aimed a punch at Guan's face, but Guan caught her arm in his massive jaws. As the creature's teeth broke through her skin, Kimiko screamed. Raimundo grabbed onto two of Guan's horns, front flipped over his head, and kicked him in the eyes.

The monster roared, dropping Kimiko. He threw Omi aside, and the small monk hit and bounced off the ground. Catching one of Raimundo's legs in his pincers, Guan swung the teen overhead and slammed him into the dirt. Kimiko pressed her injured arm to her chest while she scrambled to dodge Guan's clawed feet.

All the while, Jack Spicer watched the beatdown from within the bamboo forest, clutching the Jetbootsu against his chest. His eyes snapped to Omi, who was somehow heaving himself to his feet despite something across his torso staining his robes a darker red. As Guan's other pincer reached around Raimundo's skull, Omi picked up a dead bamboo stick and threw it. It bounced harmlessly off of Guan's back.

Raimundo panted and gritted his teeth, but his body was too stunned to move while Guan's pincers clasped around his head. Omi yelled, "Raimundo, no!" The teen weakly grabbed at the pincers and squeezed his eyes shut. A strangled noise escaped Jack's throat, and then something slithered against his ankle.

Dojo sprang away from Jack's legs and expanded to full size. With a bellowing roar, he blasted out a fireball that slammed into Guan's tail. When Guan dropped Raimundo and turned, Dojo reached back and snatched Jack out of the forest. Jack screamed again while Dojo swirled across the battlefield, snatching up all three of the other monks and retreating out into the open sky.

* * *

Several hours later, Master Monk Chase stood outside the infirmary doorway, head bowed. Though he seemed perfectly calm on the surface, his closed mouth held clenched teeth, and his hands twitched angrily under his sleeves. When Master Fung stepped out of the infirmary with Dojo on his shoulder, Chase snapped his head up and said, "How are they?"

"They will all make a full recovery," said Master Fung.

Noticing Chase's scowl, Dojo clarified, "Raimundo's pretty battered, Kimiko's got some puncture wounds on her arm, and Omi's got a couple cracked ribs and some nasty-looking cuts around his chest. Jack's unscathed but spooked." After a pause, he added, "I'm also unharmed, thank you for asking."

"I should have known that Guan would show up sooner or later." Dropping the serene facade, Chase gripped at his hair and started pacing down the hall, barely keeping his words at a low whisper. "I should never have allowed them to go hunting for the Shen Gong Wu alone. I know Guan; if I had gone with them or gone alone-"

"He does this every generation," Dojo said into Master Fung's ear while they followed Chase. "Every new batch of Chosen Ones, every new group of kids... the moment they get hurt, Chase fusses and fusses like a mother hen and decides that he's going to take over their jobs for them-"

"This is different, Dojo!" Chase snapped. "These children... they weren't prepared! I failed to prepare them for this battle, and they paid the price!"

"None of us could have predicted Warlord Guan's attack," said Master Fung kindly, "not after his years of inactivity, and especially not for the Jetbootsu."

"But see, that's what I'm wondering about," said Dojo, putting a claw to his chin. "Why would Guan come after this Shen Gong Wu and none of the others?"

Chase took a long breath and came to a stop at the open doorway to the porch. "Guan came after the Jetbootsu because Hannibal Bean sent him." Scowling out past the porch, he said, "They must have been spying on us, learning about the young monks before they chose to strike."

"They waited to attack until after Clay left the temple," murmured Master Fung. "Perhaps they saw Clay as a threat?"

Chase shook his head. "Clay is certainly the closest physical match to Guan, but I doubt Hannibal Bean could have predicted Mr. Bailey's arrival, not unless he somehow manipulated Mr. Bailey himself." He frowned deeper at the possibility. "I shall check on the Bailey ranch to find out. Until then, I believe the two events are merely coincidence."

Dojo sprang from Master Fung's shoulder to Chase's. "Do you think Hannibal Bean could be the guy who took our other Shen Gong Wu? The Shroud of Shadows and the others?"

"It's possible, but he has never had any interest in Mala Mala Jong, not when he already has Guan as his willing minion." He crossed his arms and shook his head again. "If he were our thief, he would have taken the Yang Yoyo and the Moby Morpher. Those two Shen Gong Wu would be disastrous in his hands."

"Then perhaps Hannibal Bean is acting in response to the thief?" mused Master Fung. Chase and Dojo turned to look at him, and he continued, "He was content to observe at first. Maybe he did not know how to break into the vault. However, now that someone else has successfully done so, he wishes to steal the Yang Yoyo and Moby Morpher before the thief can."

Chase's lips pulled back into a grimace as he finished Master Fung's train of thought, "So he had Guan attack our students to weaken us, leaving me as the only defender of the Shen Gong Wu." Moving swiftly down the porch and toward the vault, he said, "Then I am left with no choice: I will take the Yang Yoyo and the Moby Morpher away from here. I will lead Hannibal Bean and Guan away while the young monks recover-"

"There's the mother hen again," said Dojo.

"No, Master Chase," said Master Fung. The certainty in his voice made Chase pause in his path. Master Fung calmly stepped between him and the vault. "There is no honor in senselessly marking yourself as bait. You know how to combat Guan better than any other warrior alive. You must stay here and teach the young monks how to fight him." He gestured out toward the dark horizon. "The northern temple further into the mountains has another vault. I will take the Yang Yoyo and Moby Morpher, and I will hide them there."

Chase's breathing slowed as he pondered Master Fung's logic. Slowly, he said, "Hannibal Bean certainly won't expect an elder monk to carry something so valuable." Narrowing his eyes, he added, "But you are meant to be the main teacher to this generation of Chosen Ones. You would need another reason to leave, an excellent reason, to keep Hannibal Bean from growing suspicious."

"Master Chase, I have somehow survived years of Jack Spicer's mischief and robotic antics." Master Fung chuckled. "Do you think anyone would doubt my need for a vacation?"

* * *

Jack Spicer sat on the infirmary bed with his legs crossed, fiddling with a computer chip he had found in one of his many pockets. Next to him, the other three monks lay in their own beds. Kimiko propped herself up with several pillows, holding her bandaged arm gingerly. With his leg elevated and in a splint, Raimundo glared up at the ceiling with more rage than Jack had ever seen in him. Omi idly tugged at the gauze wrapped around his middle and held an ice pack to his forehead.

Voice weary, Kimiko finally said, "Master Monk Chase sounded really mad."

"He must be disappointed in us after our humiliating defeat," said Omi.

"We can bounce back, though!" Jack smiled weakly. "And we got the Shen Gong Wu, so really, we won the battle, right?" Omi gave a derisive snort and pointedly turned his head away.

"It doesn't feel like we won." Kimiko carefully sat upright and looked across the beds. "Why did it take so long for Dojo to jump in? He's bigger than Guan. Couldn't he have turned the tide sooner?"

"Warlord Guan eats dragons," said Omi, causing Kimiko's face to pale. "His monster form is perfectly designed to kill them. Dojo told me so. He is terrified of Guan, and he would not win in a battle against him. He only jumped in when he had no other choice. He is a brave dragon."

Twiddling her fingers, Kimiko sighed and turned her gazed down to her bedsheets. "I bet things would have gone differently if Clay had been with us."

"Things certainly would have gone differently if all four of us had been fighting." Omi finally made eye contact with Jack, sending him a withering glower.

"What? I panicked, okay?" Jack's voice rose an octave while his arms wrapped around himself. "That Guan guy was massive! At least I got the Jetbootsu! What else was I supposed to do?"

"Guan's size did not stop the rest of us from trying," Omi spat. "What are you even doing in here? You are not injured. You ran away like a coward before Guan could touch you."

Kimiko cradled her arm. "Yeah, Jack, you kinda bailed on us. Thanks a lot."

"I told him he wasn't cut out to be a Xiaolin Dragon," murmured Raimundo, the only one not glaring at Jack. Instead, his hateful gaze remained fixed at the ceiling.

Jack winced anyway. "Come on, guys, I'll do better next time!" Perking up, he held up the computer chip and grinned. "How about this? My Jackbots are almost fully assembled, and they're going to have laser guns and all kinds of other weapons. We'll bring them with us, our own Xiaolin army! Guan won't stand a chance!"

Kimiko shrugged. "I guess that's better than nothing..."

To Jack's horror, Omi's eyes turned watery when he said, "If Guan threatened to crush you into two pieces, Jack Spicer, I would not rely on robots. I would save you myself." Wincing at his own movement, he rolled to his side to face away from Jack.

"Come on, Cue Ball, I'm sorry..." Jack's voice cracked when he heard Omi sniffle, but the younger monk otherwise did not respond. Kimiko sighed and lay back down, choosing to look away as well. Jack turned frantically to Raimundo, whose angry gaze at the ceiling finally shifted to Jack and softened into pity, which was far, far worse.

Jack scrambled out of bed and left the room. Though his Jackbots would soon be capable of many things, they weren't going to build themselves.


	8. Chapter 8

When Master Fung left the temple the next morning for his self-appointed vacation, Jack made his best effort to appear appropriately solemn. He didn't dislike Master Fung or anything, but the old man rarely seemed to have anything better to do than stifle Jack's creativity. As soon as the elder disappeared into the mountainous horizon, Jack quietly tapped at his wristwatch, and Maid-bot 13.0 buzzed out of his room to finish the laundry.

Over the next couple of days, the other three monks kept trying to sneak out of the infirmary, but with Master Monk Chase prowling around the temple, they did not get far. With nothing else to do, Omi paced back and forth near his bed like a caged gerbil, Raimundo grumbled at the ceiling like he was planning a bank robbery with it, and Kimiko practiced with the Tangle Web Comb.

"I think I'm getting the hang of it, Clay," she said into her phone the second morning. (No one knew exactly how she had tracked Clay's home phone number; he had definitely been too shy to give it willingly.) Summoning the Wu to catch a water bottle across the room in its strands, she begrudgingly added, "It's a lot easier in here, though. Not a lot of distractions."

Omi leaned against her bed and said, "Ask Clay if his father is willing to reconsider his withdrawal from the temple. Now that Warlord Guan is at large, we need all the warriors we can get."

Kimiko set the phone on speaker, and Clay's voice echoed fuzzily across the room, "Uh, I'll try, lil partner, but my dad kinda... I gotta wait for him to be in a good mood for that kinda talk, y'know? I reckon he doesn't like Master Chase much, and he said a bunch of stuff about... Well, uh, he doesn't think the folks at the temple are a good influence on me."

Kimiko raised an eyebrow, idly watching the Tangle Web Comb's strands lightly set the water bottle back down. "What do you think, Clay?"

"Me? Uh." Clay cleared his throat, a scratchy sound through the line. "I miss y'all a lot, and I think what you're doing is more important than... stuff here. But I can't do a lot without my dad's say-so. Um. Kimiko, if you're thinkin' the Comb is too easy to use without distractions, then uh, maybe you could ask Omi to distract you?"

To Kimiko's chagrin, Omi clambered onto her bed. "An excellent idea, Clay! I shall gather my chi and unleash my fearsome Tsunami Strike! It is quite advanced!" He struck a dramatic pose, and Kimiko rolled her eyes.

Raimundo bolted up in bed, eyes on the doorway just as Master Monk Chase strolled into the room and said, "The three of you are supposed to be healing, but if you insist on performing martial arts and practicing with Shen Gong Wu, then you may as well do so outside on the training grounds." He raised an eyebrow at the ropes whipping across the room and zapping back into the Tangle Web Comb, which Kimiko shoved behind her back with a guilty smile.

"Does that mean we're free to go?" asked Raimundo.

"You and Kimiko have adequately recovered from your injuries," said Chase. He gave Omi a rather pointed look. "Cracked ribs, however, take weeks to heal."

"I am quite well, Master Monk Chase!" Omi lifted his leg high to struck another pose, fighting a wince with all his might. "Besides, it is my duty as the Xiaolin Dragon of Water to be ready to face evil at any time!"

Before Chase could make his rebuttal, Kimiko held up her phone. "Master Chase, say hi to Clay!"

Chase blinked at the neon pink cell phone, through which Clay's voice fuzzily said, "O-oh, howdy, Master Chase. I've been practicin' tai chi like you said. And uh, if you don't mind me sayin', I reckon Omi is ready to scrap again if he says so."

Chase gave a small smile, but then his expression turned serious as he moved toward Kimiko's bed. "Yes, perhaps so. Clay, if you do not mind me asking, have you noticed your father acting peculiar lately?"

"Uh... not really. What'd'ya mean, peculiar?"

"It means odd," said Omi.

Chase carried on, "I am merely making certain that your departure and Guan's arrival have nothing to do with each other. Have you witnessed any crows around your home? Or a red and silver parrot?"

"No, sir. Got a lot o' turkey vultures, though. Some sparrows and cowbirds here n' there. I'm hoping we'll see some egrets soon..."

"What do birds have to do with Guan?" asked Kimiko.

"Guan and Hannibal Bean have an army of shape-shifting servants," explained Chase. "They take the form of crows when they spy on their enemies. The parrot is Hannibal Bean's steed, Ying Ying. If you see her, then Hannibal Bean is nearby, and you must exercise extreme caution."

"Right. Uh. You said 'steed,' right? So am I lookin' for a giant parrot, or is this Hannibal Bean fella really small?"

"He is indeed quite small." Chase nodded grimly. "As his name implies, he is an actual bean."

Kimiko's eyebrows rose into her hair, and she glanced at Omi, who solemnly bowed his head. After a pregnant pause, Clay asked, "Like... like the kind you eat?"

"I would strongly advise against attempting to eat Hannibal Bean," said Chase. "I cannot begin to imagine the indigestion you would experience from consuming such evil."

Omi lifted a finger. "Hannibal Bean is a far greater threat than his size implies. He has unleashed many horrific forces into the world, and he has Heylin Warlord Guan under his thumb... that is, if he had a thumb."

From the other side of the room, Raimundo crossed his arms. "And you two waited until now to tell us about him because...?"

Fingers folded in front of him, Chase turned to the teen. "Neither he nor Guan have been spotted for years. They waged their last attack before Omi or Jack set foot in the temple, and then they disappeared. They've gone through dormant periods before, so I thought our main threat would be Wuya. It seems that I misjudged the situation."

Clay's voice rose up through the phone again, "So lemme make sure I got this straight: y'all have Guan and this Bean fella in cahoots, and you have Wuya out there somewhere, and you have someone stealin' Shen Gong Wu outta the vault who may or may not be one of those three baddies?" He let out a low whistle. "Y'all got your hands full, that's for sure. Wish I could help."

"You could try running away from home." Kimiko gave an impish smile.

To everyone's surprise, Clay snapped, "I ain't like Jessie, I'm not gonna-" He paused and loudly cleared his throat. Voice low and polite once more, he continued, "Uh, never mind. I'll try talkin' to my dad again. We'll see how it goes. But I probably oughta roll out, actually. If I bring the phone bill up too much, he ain't gonna be happy, so... I guess I'll talk to y'all later."

"Sure thing, Clay, we'll keep you posted." Kimiko clicked the phone shut and gave an aggravated sigh. She looked up at their teacher. "He's got a point, though: we have our hands full. What's the plan?"

Chase's mouth pressed into a thin line. For a moment, the young monks almost thought he looked nervous. But then he lifted his chin and said, "The plan is to resume training. Our focus shall shift toward combating Heylin Warlord Guan. I have determined that he is your biggest current threat."

"Literally," said Omi with a nod.

Chase's mouth twitched in what might have been amusement. "Omi, please fetch the Shen Gong Wu scroll. Raimundo, go find Jack. Kimiko, you and I will go to the vault for our remaining Shen Gong Wu, and we will all meet in the training grounds."

Like a pack of dogs finally freed from their crates, the three monks bounded from their beds and ran off to complete their prospective tasks. Once Raimundo stepped around the corner, though, he huffed and slowed to a walk. He doubted Jack would be hard to locate.

Sure enough, as he made his way toward the monks' bedrooms, Raimundo heard the telltale clang of metal hitting the wood floor. Kicking aside the curtain in front of his room, Jack Spicer stepped out with an armful of shiny, silver clutter. As a robotic head tumbled from the pile in Jack's arms, he stumbled in a valiant attempt to dodge it. "Great. Okay. Guess I'm coming back for you." He looked up and spotted Raimundo. "Yo, hey, Beta Brawn!"

"That's not my name," said Raimundo, idly watching another robot part fall to the floor, "and it's not going to catch on."

"Oh, come on, everyone loves nicknames." Jack strolled to the other teen. "I prefer 'Xiaolin Boy Genius' myself, but you can come up with your own if you want. Maybe 'Alpha Brain' if you want to be matchy about it. Hey, can you hold these?" In a surprisingly swift movement, he dumped the entire armful of parts into Raimundo's arms.

"Uh." Raimundo frowned at the pile while Jack went back and picked up the two parts he had dropped. "What is all this?"

"Mostly extra stuff I found in my underwear drawer. I already moved my biggest projects to my new lair." Eyes lighting up, he trotted back to Raimundo and grinned. "Speaking of which, wanna see my new lair?"

"You have a lair?" Raimundo echoed blankly.

"Yeah! I got the door unlocked yesterday! You know that big statue in the greenhouse? There's this button on its head, and it opens to this big creepy tunnel, and there's a door- Come on, I'll show you!" Jack trotted up the hallway and back around the corner, heading toward the temple entrance. Raimundo's eyes slid down to the robot parts in his arms and then back to Jack's room. With a half-hearted grumble, he shifted the parts around until they were easier to carry, and he followed Jack through the temple and out the door.

After the two boys passed through the courtyard and into the greenhouse, Jack climbed onto the Buddha statue against the opposite wall. "I actually figured this part out years ago- Omi and I were playing hide and seek, and I tried hiding behind this statue, only to- yep!" He pressed a dot on the statue's forehead and jumped back, and Raimundo watched the statue pivot in place, revealing a stone staircase underneath its hollow shell.

Jack pulled a small flashlight out of one of his cargo pants pockets and lit it while he strolled down the stairs. "I didn't actually explore the place at first. Scared of the dark... when I was little, anyway. But y'know, got over that. I asked Master Fung and Dojo what was in here, and they told me I was never allowed to come down here under any circumstances. So I went exploring."

Gingerly trailing after the redhead, Raimundo's mouth curled upward. "Not much for listening to authority, huh?"

"Not my strong suit, no." Jack glanced back and winked up at him. "Can't be perfect at everything." Raimundo snorted.

At the end of the short set of underground stairs, they reached a door decorated with painted, stone flowers. It had no doorknob, but a cement block had it propped open. Jack pointed at the door as he passed it. "This was the hard part. Took me forever to get through this door. No lock on it anywhere. I thought about blasting it, maybe some laser beams or a teeny bit of dynamite or something, but that would be too noisy. Then I figured, you know, the Shen Gong Wu vault opens from a specific tune with the wind chimes. Maybe this door had some weird, sneaky trick to it, too-"

Raimundo stepped inside and raised an eyebrow at the creepy stone dragon in the center of the room. A lit, battery-operated lantern sat in the statue's open mouth. Under its head lay a large treasure chest, but robot parts littered the rest of the floor. Meanwhile, Jack kept babbling, "Anyway, long story short: the door responds to water. I'm gonna try to clean the place up a bit- Maidbot already dusted everything, but I'm gonna need some tables and better lighting-"

Still staring up at the statue, Raimundo asked, "And uh, it didn't occur to you that maybe the door was locked for a reason?"

"Well, duh, of course it did, but there's nothing in here." Jack finally came over and scooped the pile of robot parts out of Raimundo's arms. "Just this big ugly statue and that box underneath it, and the only thing in the box is another, smaller box, so I'm keeping all my batteries and stuff in there." He kicked the treasure chest open and unceremoniously dumped the armful of contents into it.

Raimundo studied the metallic chaos at his feet more intently. Among some wrinkled blueprints, he spotted a few vaguely human-shaped heads and arms scattered between piles of wires and bolts. Off to the side, Jack seemed to have dug out the contents of an old television and a microwave. However, in the cleanest corner of the room, Raimundo spotted five bronze figures leaning against the wall. Pointing, he asked, "What are those?"

With a delighted gasp, Jack spun and tapped at a button on his wristwatch. "Ooh, I'm so glad you asked!" At his command, the five creations buzzed to life, eyes lighting red. Though they had no legs, and their arms remained relaxed at their sides, they vibrated and rose into the air. Jack sprang across the room and held out his arms dramatically. "Meet my new Jackbots! Fully crafted by yours truly, state of the art, and made to wreck any Heylin baddie that comes our way!"

Raimundo stepped a little closer and leaned over to poke one of the Jackbots. "How do they work?"

"Uh, well, they uh-" Jack cleared his throat. "They've got laser guns, and they've got these razor blade thingies that they can swap with their arms, and all I have to do is set them to battle mode, and they'll take off and fight all by themselves! No need to command their directions or anything!"

Raimundo glanced over and noticed that Jack was biting his lip. Raising an eyebrow, he said, "But...?"

Jack shuffled his feet a bit. "Well, uh, I can't send them to battle juuuuust yet. Right now they're programmed to protect me specifically. If I were fighting alone, it'd be no problem, but I haven't quite figured out how to reprogram their battle chips so they recognize you guys as allies." When Raimundo jumped back, Jack waved his hands and added, "No, no, it's fine! They're in standby mode now, so they won't hurt you!"

As Jack tapped at his wristwatch again and let the Jackbots gently settle back down on the floor, Raimundo asked, "You said they fight by themselves? You don't have to control where they go? How do they know not to run into walls and stuff?"

"Ooh, good question!" Jack jumped over the innards of a broken printer and grabbed two disc-shaped objects on the floor. "That was something I figured out when I was six- I had to live with my granny for a few months, and she had all this expensive china and stuff in all the cabinets, so I had to design robots that could fly around without running into things. Took me forever to get the coding right, but look! My first ever hoverbots!" He tossed one of the discs across the room, and right before it could hit the wall, it buzzed to a stop. Like a tiny helicopter, it floated around the lair, smoothly dodging the dragon statue and landing back in Jack's open hand.

Raimundo couldn't help but stare. "Wow, that's actually... kind of cool."

Jack beamed at the praise. "I know, right? You really think so?"

"Yeah, Miguel and Marcos would be losing their minds if they were here now-" Blinking, Raimundo scratched at his hair.

"Miguel and Marcos?" Jack echoed.

"My little bros." Raimundo shrugged and studied the floor. "Twins. They were going through a big tech phase last time I saw them, really into robots and aliens and stuff. They took over my half of the room when I left... I bet they wrecked it. Oh well."

"Man, I wish I had little brothers to mess with- I mean, I kinda sorta adopted Omi when I was nine; we have some adoption paperwork I wrote with crayon on a napkin somewhere, but anyway-" Jack stepped over a robotic head and held out the two discs to Raimundo. "You think your bros would like these? I have the coding memorized, so I don't need 'em anymore."

"You- what-" Raimundo stammered when Jack shoved the two discs against his chest, forcing him to grab them. "I- No, I mean-"

"Maybe they got birthdays coming up or something? They're way better than those drone toys you see in the malls. Oh! I could paint them, too, if you want! Do your bros have favorite colors or anything?"

Staring down at the little hoverbots, Raimundo's cheeks flushed, and he mumbled, "I don't really have anything to trade back to you..."

"It's not a trade, you dummy. You can have them!" Jack stuffed his hands in his pockets, grinning awkwardly. "They can be a thanks-for-listening-to-me-ramble-about-my-robots present. No one else at the temple thinks they're interesting. Master Monk Chase sometimes listens, but I think he's just being polite."

"Master Monk Chase? He..." Raimundo took in a quick breath. "Oh. Master Monk Chase is waiting for us at the training grounds. He's gonna teach us how to fight Warlord Guan."

"Wait, what?" Jack's smile dropped, and he gawked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Flushing again, Raimundo muttered honestly, "I forgot."

"Well, gee, okay-" Jack kicked aside a few parts as he made his way to the door. "We better head out there, then. I'll figure out the Jackbots later- Do not move that cinder block; I had to take a bunch of wild guesses to get that door to open, and I don't think I could do it a second time- Come on!"

Jack sprang over the cinder block holding the door open and dashed up the stairs. Raimundo took a half-step after him, but then he glanced back down at the two little hoverbots in his hands. After a long pause, he bent his knees and gently set them back onto the floor. Frowning at the fingerprints he'd left, he wiped the two bots clean with his shirt sleeve. Shoulders slumped, he scratched roughly at his hair and bolted up the stairs after Jack.


	9. Chapter 9

When Jack and Raimundo joined the others outside, Master Monk Chase did not comment on their tardiness. Kimiko raised an eyebrow, but Omi did not acknowledge Jack's presence at all. Once the four were lined up across from him, Master Monk Chase stepped back onto the open field and said, "The Heylin side has finally risen to challenge us. Today's training will be focused on building your skills to confront Heylin Warlord Guan."

Omi raised his hand. "But Master, I fought him with all the skill and expertise I already have, and Kimiko and Raimundo did the same. None of us were a match. How can we possibly improve swiftly enough to defeat Guan?"

"Can anything break through his exoskeleton?" asked Raimundo. Putting a finger to his chin, he looked down. "I wonder if he's bulletproof..."

Kimiko's eyes slid slowly to stare at Raimundo, and they widened in further alarm when Jack gasped and added, "Ooh! Or laser guns!"

Master Monk Chase briefly turned his gaze skyward and sighed before resuming eye contact. "Warlord Guan is 1,500 years old. I am fairly confident that if a gun could defeat him, then someone would have shot him by now. As it stands," He squared his shoulders and studied each of the monks, "the four of you are the Chosen Ones, the world's main defense against the Heylin forces of evil. You are the only ones who have any hope of beating him."

"How?" Omi asked again, hand still over his head.

"The four of you must practice against someone with Guan's level of skill, someone who knows all his tricks and can learn yours." Chase unfolded his fingers and bent his knees in a battle stance. "Young monks, for this exercise, you will have to attack me."

Jack gasped, and Omi visibly flinched. "You? But Master Monk Chase, you are our teacher!"

"And as such, I promise to go easy on you, little one," Master Monk Chase said with a wink. Omi's face reddened, and their teacher added, "Any of you may attack at any time. In fact, I am certain that some level of teamwork will be required for you to have any success."

After a few more seconds of hesitation, Omi finally shifted his feet under him to match Master Monk Chase's posture. Jack bit his lip and looked around at the others. Raimundo sauntered away from the group as if to quit the exercise entirely, but Jack noticed that his eyes remained on the elder monk, and his feet slowly took him in a lazy arc. Taking his cue, Kimiko slowly started moving in the opposite direction, flanking Chase's other side.

The elder monk kept his gaze trained on Omi, who was the first to leap forward with the cry, "Mantis Kick!" Chase dodged effortlessly, tossing his long hair back behind him as Omi landed on his hands and rolled forward to a stop. Springing back up, Omi spun around and charged again. "Monkey Strike!" As the boy leaped, Chase blocked his fists with his own palms and tossed him back.

From atop the monkey bars behind Chase, Raimundo huffed and called, "Stop calling your attacks out loud, Chrome Dome! You're giving yourself away!"

When Omi sat up, blinking slowly, Master Monk Chase turned and nodded in approval. "A good point, Raimundo. Giving your teammates advice improves the odds of your success." Raimundo frowned and covered his mouth with his fingers, looking surprised at himself for saying anything.

After Omi stood and dusted off his robes, he sprang forward once more. This time, his attacks were silent, but Master Monk Chase still managed to block every kick, swing, and punch. When Omi finally dropped onto his butt, breathing hard, the teacher straightened his back and said, "Omi, as usual, your form is without flaw. Unfortunately, that makes your actions rather predictable." When Omi wilted, Master Monk Chase bent down to his eye level and asked, "What do you think your best course of action should be for the sake of your improvement?"

Omi pursed his lips, and a crease appeared between his eyebrows. "Perhaps I am too straightforward? Should I meditate on ways to use my skills in a more creative manner?"

Master Monk Chase smiled. "I think that would be an excellent-" He dropped the rest of his sentence when Raimundo sprang down from the monkey bars and hit the ground with an unusually loud thud. When Master Monk Chase turned to face him, a dozen golden ropes slammed into him from the opposite direction.

As Master Monk Chase stumbled back up to his feet, the Tangle Web Comb tightened its tendrils around his torso. Eyes wide, Chase looked up at Kimiko at the other end, who looked even more shocked than he did. A wide smile lit up her face, and she pumped her fist in victory. "Ha! That counts! I did it! I got you!"

However, as she danced in place, the ropes wavered. With his legs still free, Master Monk Chase side-stepped and yanked away from her. Kimiko yelped when the Tangle Web Comb fell from her hand, and as the ropes shrank away, the Shen Gong Wu bounced into Chase's open palm. With a chuckle, he said, "I will be honest: I did not expect any of you to land a successful hit. Well done, Kimiko. Can you tell me what you did well?"

Still managing a smile, Kimiko said, "Well, uh, I found my focus! And there was, like, some teamwork, too! When you were talking to Omi, I looked over at Raimundo, and he jumped off the monkey bars to distract you while I summoned the Tangle Web Comb, and... and then I had it!"

For some reason, Raimundo crossed his arms and looked away from everyone, scowling. Jack noticed it, but Master Monk Chase did not. He kept his focus on Kimiko. "And where did you make your error?"

Kimiko grinned sheepishly and twirled a finger in her pigtail. "I celebrated too early."

Master Monk Chase walked to her and passed her back the Tangle Web Comb. "Correct. While you have indeed found your focus, you must learn to maintain it. Do not celebrate your victory until your enemy is truly defeated."

"Thank you, Master Chase." Kimiko nodded her head in a quick bow.

Clearing his throat, Omi put his hands on his hips and called across the grounds, "Were you planning on participating, Jack Spicer? Or were you hoping to become a Xiaolin Dragon by hiding in a bamboo forest while the rest of us do the hard work?"

Still standing in the same spot where he had started, Jack blinked, flailed his hands a bit, and stammered, "I was- For your information, I was coming up with a genius battle strategy!" Sweating, he cleared his throat and fidgeted when Master Monk Chase turned his focus to him. "I- I, uh, I'd just hate to break that beautiful nose of yours, you know?"

Master Monk Chase's eyebrows furrowed, mouth open slightly like he was pondering his next words carefully. Omi, however, had no such compunctions when he pointed and said, "You have never had any hesitation on the training grounds before. You have fought me countless times, and you have suffered countless embarrassments, but that has never stopped you from trying. But now that we have a real danger to face, suddenly you are frozen in fear?"

Jack's voice was an octave too high when he answered, "I'm not scared!"

"Then fight!" yelled Omi, spreading his arms wide and stomping a foot in anger. "Show us that genius battle strategy of yours! Show us what you would do if Warlord Guan were here right now, threatening our lives and our temple. Prove to me- prove to us- that you are still a Xiaolin Dragon and that you still belong here!"

Jack's knees shook, his breathing turned rapid, and he knew it was stupid. Master Monk Chase would not hurt him. He had nothing to lose by at least throwing a punch or two. Even if he landed on his face in failure, it wouldn't be the first time; at least he would regain Omi's trust. But while he raised his feebly clenched fists, he heard Guan's monstrous roar in his ears. He saw the teeth and the claws in the corners of his vision, ready to rip him to pieces before he could scream for help-

"STOP EVERYTHING!" Dojo yelled.

Jack's clammy hands dropped to his knees, and he gasped for air. Through the pounding in his ears, he faintly heard the dragon rush out onto the training grounds and say, "We got a hot new Shen Gong Wu! Where's the scroll?"

Grateful for the distraction, Jack stared at the ground and tried to fight through a wave of dizziness. Before his vision could clear completely, though, he heard footsteps approaching him. Gritting his teeth, he felt his ears turn hot as Master Monk Chase bent down next to him and asked, "Jack, are you alright?"

"F-fine! D-don't worry about me," Jack choked out, swinging a hand dismissively. "I'm fine, I just- I uh- I swallowed a fly."

To his surprise, he heard a chuckle from Raimundo, soft near his other side. "Oh, good. You ate a bug. And here I thought something embarrassing was happening."

Jack's answering snort came out in an awkward cough, but his lips curled up in a grin anyway. Giggling, he stood back upright and smacked Raimundo in the arm. Stepping away in a half-hearted dodge, Raimundo smiled back and kept laughing quietly, and Jack's heart most certainly did not skip any beats at that. If a scowling Raimundo was the definition of "tall, dark, and handsome," then a smiling Raimundo was something else entirely.

Dojo's voice called out, "Come on, boys, we gotta go!"

Master Monk Chase, who had been glancing back and forth between the two teens with an unreadable expression, turned to face the fully grown dragon. "I wish to make sure Jack is well, Dojo. Perhaps this Shen Gong Wu could wait a few moments?"

Deciding that his heart palpitations were probably just from his earlier panic, Jack turned away from Raimundo and watched Omi open the Shen Gong Wu scroll from atop Dojo's back. The scroll showed a moving picture of a veined, beating heart.

"'Fraid not," said Dojo. "This one's the Heart of Jong."

Silence sank briefly onto the training grounds. Confused, Jack turned back to Raimundo, but that smile was gone. Raimundo stood frozen in place, shoulders taut and eyes unblinking at the scroll.

Master Monk Chase moved toward Dojo and pointed at the two monks on his back. "Kimiko, Omi, step down. You four will wait here. I will fetch the Heart of Jong."

Dojo rolled his eyes and rested his chin on his clawed fist. Raimundo made a strange choking sound, and Omi stood up on the dragon's back with the outcry, "What? No! Master Chase, you said so yourself: we are the Chosen Ones! We must make up for our previous battle against Warlord Guan!"

"If Guan is willing to break ribs for the Jetbootsu, I do not wish to know how much further he would harm you to acquire the Heart of Jong." Master Monk Chase stopped and stood next to Dojo with his arms crossed, waiting for the two to disembark. "The four of you are not even apprentices yet; I will fare better in a match against him. Step down."

Omi's chin quivered, but Jack knew the boy would rather break his own arm than disobey a direct order from his teacher. Omi and Kimiko slid down, heads hanging, but then Raimundo's nostrils flared, and he stomped over to Dojo. Throwing himself onto the dragon's back before Chase could stop him, he said, "I didn't come all the way out here to China to be babysat. What's the point of training us if you aren't going to let us fight our own battles?"

"This is no time for recklessness, Raimundo," Chase snapped. "Do as you are told!"

"Um." Jack lifted a finger and took a few steps toward the group. Though his voice had been small, everyone heard him and glanced over. Clearing his throat, Jack held out his palms and asked, "What if we all went?"

* * *

Though Master Monk Chase spent the entire flight spouting rapid-fire instructions on how to combat Guan (or, more specifically, how to avoid him), Jack was too queasy to listen. He couldn't tell if it was from Dojo's usual undulating or from his own sense of impending doom. He tried to convince himself that everything would be fine; if Guan showed up, Jack could hide behind someone else until the battle was over. If Omi gave him grief over it, he could point out how Chase obviously wanted everyone to stay out of trouble anyway. He was just following orders, right?

He gulped. Why didn't the other monks want to stay at the temple like Chase ordered, anyway? Guan had beaten the tar out of them. Why didn't they want Chase to take care of it, especially when he was already the most skilled fighter in the temple? Why did they want to go back out and fight Guan themselves?

Where did they get that courage, and why didn't Jack have it, too?

Dojo descended over a deciduous forest, scattering gold and red leaves as he landed. When Chase and the young monks jumped down, the dragon shrank and pointed westward. "Heart of Jong, due that way!"

Master Monk Chase murmured, "Stay close, young ones."

As their teacher led them into the brightly lit forest, Jack hovered near him like a paperclip drawn to a magnet, mentally arguing that he was simply following directions. The other monks stayed within sight, but they were bold enough to fan out further. Raimundo peered into a hollow log, Kimiko strolled through the underbrush, and Omi stuck his hand into a knot hole of the nearest tree.

Then Omi's sudden scream rang out through the woods. Jack leaped onto Master Monk Chase's back with a panicked shriek of his own, and the elder monk spun around. Raimundo drew a knife from his pocket, Kimiko raised her arms for battle, and Omi ran past them with a squirrel clinging to his shirt, shrieking, "GET THIS DISEASE-CARRYING VERMIN OFF OF ME!"

Kimiko watched the boy run in circles around them and muttered, "Behold, the mighty Xiaolin Dragon of the Water." Her eye caught the glint of the blade in Raimundo's hand, and she pointed at it. "I thought your knife broke?"

"I have more than one," Raimundo said, eyebrows high as if she was the weird one for asking. Kimiko took a step away from him.

Master Monk Chase walked forward and calmly snagged Omi by the shirt. Picking up the squirrel by its scruff, he tugged it free and dropped it onto the grass. As Omi frantically wiped his hands across his robes as if to rid himself of the squirrel germs, the teacher gave a faint smile and asked, "Are you alright?"

"It tried to bite me," Omi whined, sulking at the tear on his sleeve. "It could have had rabies."

"It is rather difficult to face something that frightens you, isn't it?" asked Chase.

Startled by the question, Omi looked up. His eyes slid from Chase to Jack, who still clung to their teacher like a baby koala. Omi's gaze turned cold, and with a huff, he crossed his arms and said, "Perhaps, but I would not know. I was not frightened; I was merely caught by surprise. I have no fears, unlike some warriors."

Master Monk Chase frowned when Omi stomped away. Folding his fingers in front of him, he let out a heavy sigh. Behind him, Jack mumbled into his shoulder, "Thanks for trying."

"I am not sure what you mean," Master Monk Chase said nonchalantly, waiting while Jack slid down to his own feet.

Hands fidgeting, Jack shrugged. "I don't think he's gonna forgive me for running away from Guan, not unless I do better next time we see him. But I... I don't know if I can. I'm no good at the obstacle course, and I'm no good at sparring, and that was fine because I could always try again later, but..."

"That is why I am here, Jack," said Chase. "None of you are ready to face Guan, which is why I will battle him in your stead."

"That's not the point, though!" Jack tugged at his own hair, knocking his goggles askew. "Omi's right; we're the Chosen Ones! Even if I'm not skilled enough to beat Guan, I should still want to, right? Isn't that my destiny? What kind of warrior runs and hides when his teammates are in trouble? If I'm too chicken to fight a bad guy, then how will I become the Xiaolin Dragon of Metal? What if I don't belong here?"

"Jack." Master Monk Chase set his hands on either of Jack's shoulders. "Fearlessness is not a trait to admire. After all, the bravest warrior is not the one who fears nothing, but the one who is willing to face what he fears most. You choose your own destiny. If you wish to be here, then you belong."

"But I..."

Kimiko's voice rang out, "Master Chase, I think I found it!" Jack leaned to peek around the trees ahead of them. With Omi and Raimundo flanking her on either side, Kimiko pointed up at a gleam in the branches. Raimundo threw a stick upward, and the purplish object dropped and hit the dirt with a squelch. Kimiko grimaced and flinched away. "Eww!"

Releasing Jack and running to the group, Master Monk Chase peered into the forest before picking the Heart of Jong off the ground. He barely gave it a glance; as if expecting an ambush, he kept his gaze trained on their surroundings. Raimundo, frowning and with his back to the group, seemed to have the same mindset. Jack rubbed his own shoulders as he approached them.

The tense, confused atmosphere dissipated when Dojo sprang onto Omi's shoulder and said, "Welp. Looks like you came all the way out here for nothing, Chase." Omi's lip curled out in a pout, and Raimundo kicked a nearby rock and tugged his hood further over his face. Kimiko and Jack were the only two to respond with relief, though Kimiko's sagging shoulders were less obvious than Jack's loud exhale.

"As I initially expected," murmured Chase, who seemed surprised that his logical reasoning had triumphed over his pessimistic paranoia, "Hannibal Bean has no interest in Mala Mala Jong. Your battle with Guan had nothing to do with the Jetbootsu; he wanted something else."

"Like what?" asked Omi. Master Monk Chase stared at the Heart of Jong and didn't answer.

Dojo stretched his little arms over his head. "Well, I don't know about any of you, but I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth." He jumped and swirled around the group, expanding to full size. "Hop on, kids and babysitter!"

* * *

Later that night, with no one around to complain about his blowtorch, Jack Spicer bobbed his head to the most obnoxious punk rock music he illegally owned. Sitting alone in his underground lair with his headphones vibrating against his ears, he shifted back and forth from his laptop computer to the Jackbot skull on the floor in front of him. Leaning down, he stuck out his tongue a bit while fiddling with two tiny wires.

"This would be a lot easier if I had the Changing Chopsticks," he said, more to his other four Jackbots than to himself. Unfortunately, the last time he'd borrowed the Shen Gong Wu without permission, Master Fung had quietly pulled him aside and calmly suggested that scrubbing between the tiles of the grand hall would help him learn to ask permission first. Jack wasn't about to risk getting busted again.

Then again, Master Fung wasn't here anymore.

An eyebrow rose over his goggles, and a mischievous smile lit up his face.

Still clad in black pajamas and yellow, googly eyed slippers, Jack trotted up the stairs and out through the greenhouse, bobbing his head and shoulders in beat with his music. The night was calm and clear, and the waxing moon lit his way. He danced a little jig up the two stairs into the meditation room above the vault, humming to himself. Though the vault could only open in response to a tune played on the little bells hanging near the door, he had it memorized. More importantly, he didn't have to worry about getting caught. For all his intuition and attentiveness, Master Monk Chase was a shockingly heavy sleeper.

However, when Jack strolled across the room and reached for the golden bells, something made him pause. His hands froze an inch from the bells, and an unpleasant, fearful sensation rose in his gut. Everything in the room turned still. Heart pounding, Jack pulled off his headphones, frowned at the bells, and wondered what was wrong with him. Surely it wasn't his tiger instincts; he'd never been any good at that stuff...

He turned and glanced down at the vault, a set of spiral stairs that descended from the cauldron in the center of the room. His breath caught. The stairs were supposed to be hidden under a brick red circle around the cauldron, but Jack could see the stairs now. Not only was the vault unlocked; it was open.

Setting his headphones on the floor, Jack crept to the center of the room and peered down the stairs. Was something shuffling around below, or was he hearing things? Old embers glimmered in dim torches against the circular wall, faintly lighting the way down. His slippers thankfully made no sound as he took a few timid steps into the vault. He'd forgotten to grab a flashlight on his way here, but he told himself it was no big deal. After all, he'd said so himself: he wasn't afraid of the dark anymore, right?

When he reached the drawer with the Changing Chopsticks, his hand brushed across the stone carvings and curled above the rim. He leaned forward a bit and peered at the drawers of the other Shen Gong Wu further down the staircase. His heart kept pounding against his rib cage for some stupid reason, but he let out a quiet breath. Obviously, there was no one else down here.

Further down, a drawer opened by itself.

Jack screamed and stumbled. The drawer slammed shut. Jack frantically scrambled backwards up the stairs, but before he could even lose sight of the offending drawer, a raspy voice shrieked behind him, "Foolish boy! You let the inept redhead sneak up on you!"

With another, louder scream, Jack whirled around. Inches away hovered a translucent purple figure, face covered by a painted mask and limbs curling out in dozens of tendrils. The mask's mouth curled in a snarl. Jack's third outburst came out in a barely human screech as he toppled back down the stairs, slammed into something solid, and desperately grabbed at it. His fingers latched onto a silky, smooth substance, a cloth that turned silver as he kept falling.

He rolled down a few more stairs and finally came to a stop, neck bent at a precarious angle against the wall. Panting and trembling, he gingerly heaved himself upright and stared at the unmistakable Shroud of Shadows in his clenched fingers. Adjusting his lopsided goggles, he peered back up the stairs.

With the masked ghost curled around his shoulders and the Heart of Jong clutched tight against his chest, Raimundo stared back down at him.


	10. Chapter 10

"R-Raimundo?" Jack stammered, swaying to his feet. "What- what's going on? What is that thing?"

Caught with his hand in the metaphorical cookie jar, Raimundo looked shocked and horrified for at least a moment. Then he narrowed his eyes and scowled at the ghost. "You know, Wuya, I could have played this off if you hadn't decided to jump out at him like a cheap Halloween prop."

"Wuya?" Jack flinched away from the ghost. "That's Wuya?"

"Forget about him!" Wuya hissed, swirling around the hooded teen. "We have what we came for, and you can finally complete your end of the deal!"

"What deal?" On shaking legs, Jack managed a step toward the two. "Raimundo? H-hey, Beta Brawn, what's happening? What are you doing with the Heart of Jong?"

Raimundo leaned back a bit when his gaze flickered back to the other teen, and there was that weird pitying expression again. His mouth tightened into a thin line until he said, "Just go back upstairs, dude. This is none of your business."

"That Shen Gong Wu... It belongs to us. It's ours." Taking another step closer, Jack found the nerves to point directly at the ghost. "Is that Wuya? But she's a bad guy, isn't she? Why are you talking to her? What are you-?"

"You Xiaolin Warriors turn more obtuse every generation, don't you?" Wuya drifted down the stairs and circled around Jack, who stumbled back and pinned himself against the wall with a whimper. "Do I have to spell things out for you? Raimundo is working for me. He stole your Shroud of Shadows right from under your nose, and then he took the rest of your Shen Gong Wu-"

"He wouldn't do that!" Jack said, voice a bit too high to sound convincing. "Yeah, he gets grumpy sometimes, but he's not evil! And even if he was, he'd never stoop to serving some freaky ghost hag!"

Wuya let out a raspy snarl, and Jack looked up at Raimundo for confirmation. Instead, the other teen's face colored with a weird mix of anger, embarrassment, and fear before he managed to mask it. Turning stoic, he said, "You're right; I'm not her servant. It's a business deal."

Jack's heart managed to plummet even further down into his gut as the ghost chuckled and rolled her yellow, pupilless eyes. "Yes, of course, boy. Business."

"Let's just get this over with," said Raimundo, straightening his back and squaring his shoulders. "Jack, stay down here. Or go to your lair, or your room, or wherever. Whatever you do, just stay out of our way." He turned and trotted up the stairs, and Wuya trailed after him.

"H-hey, wait!" Jack haphazardly stuffed the Shroud of Shadows into a pajama pocket and staggered after them, wincing and yelping at bit at the bruises from his earlier fall. By the time he reached the top of the stairs, Raimundo stood at the doorway leading outside, head turned back to frown at him. Jack's shoulders sagged, and he said, "You can't just- You stole the other Shen Gong Wu? You're the thief?"

Raimundo rolled his eyes. "Try to keep up, Jack."

"But why?" Jack walked toward him with palms upward, and Raimundo instinctively shifted into a battle stance. "Don't you want to become a Xiaolin Dragon like the rest of us? You're working for some purple mask-face when you could be learning to protect the world and get superpowers and- and-"

Baring his teeth in what could have almost been a smile, Raimundo said, "I already told you, Jack: this place is a waste of time. I thought coming to the Xiaolin temple would make me a better warrior, but no one has managed to teach me anything useful since I got here. Not Master Fung, not Master Chase, and certainly not you. At least Wuya managed to get the information I've needed for a year now, so now I can go back to Rio and finally make a difference." He twirled the Heart of Jong on his palm. "The least I can do is repay her."

"Information?" Jack asked. "What information?"

Raimundo bristled. "None of your business." In a few quick strides, he was back in the vault and had Jack by the shirt of his pajamas. As Jack's hands ducked behind his own back, the hooded teen snarled, "None of this is any of your business, and if you don't back off, I'll make you."

Tapping at his wristwatch, Jack gulped and tried in vain to yank away from Raimundo's grip. "H-hey, I wouldn't pick a fight with me if I were you, pal. I've been training here since I was six; don't make me b-bust you up with my sick moves. I don't wanna hurt you."

"Hurt me?" Raimundo's smile turned slightly crazed. "You? Hurt me? Remind me again, Spicer: which of us is the quickest on the obstacle course, and who's the slowest? Which one of us lost to an eight-year-old boy at the tiger instincts exercise, and who beat him within seconds? The only intelligent battle strategy you've ever had was the one you used against Warlord Guan. So use your brain now, Jack: run and hide. You're good at that."

He yanked up Jack's shirt and dropped him. Instead of falling to his knees, Jack let his hands hit the floor first so he could fling himself toward the open door. Raimundo raised an eyebrow while Jack slapped his hands on either side of the doorway and braced himself, facing the other teen and blocking the way out. Wuya phased through the wall back into the vault, and her masked face curled into a glower. "What is taking you so long, boy? Get rid of him!"

A distant, faint buzzing reached Jack's ears, but Raimundo didn't seem to notice. He threw his arms open as wide as Jack's and said, "Knock it off, Spicer! You can't beat me in a fight, so just quit while you're ahead!"

Jack's hands turned cold and clammy against the wooden door frame, and his heart rammed loud enough for him to hear the beat in his ears. He took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and took a step toward his opponents. "I'm a l-lot of things, Raimundo. I'm a coward. I'm a weakling. And you know what? I'm probably the worst Xiaolin Dragon ever. But I am not a quitter!" Behind him, four spotlights flipped on in a bright burst. Hair and goggles gleaming in the light, Jack pointed at Raimundo. "Jackbots, ATTACK!"

He flung himself to the side, and his four completed Jackbots soared through the open door. Raimundo lurched back in shock for a split second before he yelled, "Jetbootsu!" His metallic footwear gleamed, and he flew straight up toward the high glassed ceiling. The Jackbots pointed the laser guns on their chests, and the vault lit with flashes of red and white.

Jack scuttled for cover and pinned himself against the cauldron in the center of the room. Wuya's yellow eyes turned round while the robots buzzed around and past her, but the laser beams passed harmlessly through her translucent body. As the Jackbots soared upward, Raimundo reached the ceiling and peered down at them, Heart of Jong still in his clutches. Wobbling a bit in the air, he kicked off from the glass and flew straight toward the nearest robot. A trail of red beams followed him, and he slammed into the first robot with a crunch.

Jack yelped and slapped a hand over his mouth, but to his surprise, the crunching sound had not come from Raimundo's own bones. Instead, the robot- one he had literally built from a car- flailed with a new, solid dent in its torso. Visibly unruffled, Raimundo spun and roundhouse kicked a second robot into the wall. The two broken bots tumbled toward the ground, smoke pouring from their torsos, but the remaining two flew at Raimundo from opposite sides. One reached out its metallic, clawed hands and grabbed Raimundo's arms from behind. The other paused in front of him and aimed its laser gun at his head.

"Non-lethal!" Jack yelled, rapidly typing into his wristwatch. The two broken robots hit the ground and exploded on either side of him. Cringing in impulsive fear at the noise, he shouted, "Don't kill him! Non-lethal-"

The aiming Jackbot paused at the incoming digital commands, giving Raimundo the time to yank his arm free and throw the Heart of Jong at its head. Wuya shrieked in rage. The Shen Gong Wu bounced off the robot's face, and Jack watched it drop to the floor. He heard more crunches overhead while he ducked around the burning remains of his poor Jackbots. Metal fingers and elbow joints clattered onto the floor. Jack flung himself the last few feet to the Heart of Jong, landing on his belly and slapping his hand upon it just as Raimundo grabbed it from the opposite side.

"Whoa, hey, I got it fair and square!" Jack whined, trying to yank the Shen Gong Wu closer. Hovering upside-down in the air with the Jetbootsu, Raimundo casually spun himself right side up, bringing Jack and the Heart of Jong with him. Jack yelped, his body flung like a pile of wet noodles, and he latched onto the heart with both hands. The two teens were now nose to nose, Jack on his knees and Raimundo floating in front of him.

"Let go." Voice icy, Raimundo effortlessly jerked Jack forward, sliding him across the floor.

Jack tightened his grip. "N-no way! You may have beaten up my Jackbots, b-but I got more tricks up my sleeve-" His round, red eyes glanced down at the Heart of Jong when it started to glow as brightly as the burning metal around them. "That- uh- that's not one of them, though."

Raimundo squinted at the glowing Shen Gong Wu, wincing like he expected the light to burn him. "What's going on?"

"This, my dear boys, is a Xiaolin Showdown." Wuya drifted down between them, grinning wildly. "I certainly did not anticipate you two to reach an impasse of all things- honestly, Raimundo, I expected better- but at least this will settle the match once and for all."

"Match?" repeated Jack.

Voice still cold but now with a trace of worry, Raimundo asked, "What's a Xiaolin Showdown?"

"Quite simply, my boy, it is a duel to settle your stalemate. If neither of you choose to surrender the Heart of Jong now, then you must compete in the Xiaolin Showdown to win it from your opponent. First, you each wager a Shen Gong Wu." She eyed each of them. "Well? Choose!"

"I wager the Jetbootsu," said Raimundo, turning back to Jack.

"U-uh, wager? Like, one of mine? Uh." Jack reached back toward his pockets, and his fingers clasped a silvery fabric. "Oh! Uh, I wager the Shroud of Shadows?"

Wuya's grin spread even wider. "And now you choose the duel."

"Choose?" Raimundo muttered. "Like there's more than one type?"

"Wait- wait-" Jack sat up straighter. "A Xiaolin Showdown! I know what that is! It's a game! You wager stuff, and then you choose what game you're gonna do- Chase told us about it- Omi and I played it all the time as kids-"

Wuya should not have been able to wrinkle the nose on her mask, but she managed somehow. "Very astute, Jack Spicer. Dashi certainly did prefer to call it a 'game.' Your Xiaolin Showdown could be tic-tac-toe or checkers, for all he cared. Or," she leered at Raimundo, "it could be far more interesting. First to stab the other through the heart, perhaps? First to snap the other's neck? The world is your oyster, my dear boy-"

"Soccer," said Raimundo.

Wuya's grin faltered, and Jack clambered to his feet. "Um, wait. Can we pick a different game? I'm not very good at soccer, or any ball game for that matter..."

"I didn't think you were." Raimundo's sneer was more subtle than Wuya's. "That's why I picked it."

Jack's mouth opened and closed into a thin line. "Ah. Gotcha."

"First to score a point wins." Raimundo yanked at the Heart of Jong one more time, nearly causing Jack to stumble. "Alright, let's go: Xiaolin Showdown!"

The vault exploded. In a burst of sound and light, the walls around them broke apart and disintegrated. Raimundo's confidence shattered from his face, and the two teens grabbed onto each other while the floor morphed below them, expanding outward into a giant stone field. Two netted goals rose on either end, and then the ground turned still.

While Jack tried to force his heart back down from his throat, he became aware of rapid breathing in his hair and fingers digging into his shirt. Raimundo seemed to notice this, too, because he suddenly shoved Jack away and took several steps backwards. The Heart of Jong rose into the air, glowing even brighter over the center of the soccer field.

"Where's the-?" Raimundo spun in place like a caged animal. "Where's the temple?"

Wuya appeared at Raimundo's side, looking immensely unimpressed at his behavior. "You will return to the temple once you win the Xiaolin Showdown. Honestly, Raimundo, I thought you were more intelligent than this."

Jack was slightly less alarmed by the unexpected display of Xiaolin magic, but only slightly. His knees quivered, and he had to grab his knees to keep from fainting on the spot. He blinked down at himself; his red Xiaolin robes had replaced his pajamas. After a few seconds of gulping for air, his eyebrows furrowed, and he murmured, "Where's the ball?" His eyes drifted upward to the Heart of Jong.

"You said you'd heard of Xiaolin Showdowns before, Spicer," snapped Raimundo. His Xiaolin robes had not appeared; he still wore his white hoodie. "How do we start this thing?"

"Okay...here we go..." Jack gulped and pushed himself off his knees. Swaying a bit, he pulled the Shroud of Shadows from his pocket and held it out in front of him. He took a deep breath, braced his legs, and shouted, "GONG YI TAN PAI!"

The Heart of Jong swirled in place, morphed into a soccer ball, and dropped down from the sky. Raimundo bent his knees and sprang forward, but just as the ball hit the ground, Jack yelled, "Shroud of Shadows!" Instead of wrapping the Shen Gong Wu around himself, he tossed the silvery fabric over the ball, and it vanished.

Raimundo skidded to a stop, eyes steady on the spot where the ball had disappeared. Raising an eyebrow, he said, "Great job. Now neither of us can see it."

"Actually," said Jack, pulling his goggles over his eyes and casting a golden tint on his surroundings, "it used to be the Heart of Jong, which you were holding for several minutes. It absorbed a bunch of your body heat, so now it's warmer than the ground." He tapped a button at his wristwatch, and Raimundo's body turned bright red through the goggles. A round, faintly orange object appeared between them. With a wicked grin, Jack said, "Guess who has heat vision?"

Jack kicked at the orange object, and the invisible ball bounced down the field. To everyone's surprise, including his own, Jack cackled as he ran after it. Raimundo's cheeks turned red, and he was almost too startled to move until Wuya screeched, "Don't just stand there, you little buffoon! Go get him!"

Jack sprinted down the field, only stumbling twice when his feet failed to make contact with the ball. Far out behind him, he heard Raimundo summon the Jetbootsu. In a gust of wind, the other teen slammed onto the ground before him in a blur of bright red. With a small shriek, Jack tried to duck around him, but Raimundo side-stepped and blocked his way. The ball rolled out of reach. Jack eyed the teen's clenched fists and shrank back, but the punch never came. Raimundo stayed an arm's length away, scowling but not striking.

"What are you doing?" Wuya hissed. "Attack him!"

"Can't," said Raimundo, matching Jack's steps stride for stride. "That'd be a foul."

Wuya sputtered, and Jack's mouth dropped open. Kicking at empty air as a weak bluff, he asked, "A foul? You're working for the most evil Heylin witch in existence, and you're worried about breaking the rules?"

"I'm not working for Wuya," Raimundo said. "I don't care about any of this Xiaolin and Heylin stuff. I'm not on her side. She got me something I wanted, and now I'm getting her something she wants. It has nothing to do with you."

Jack flailed his hands, inching closer to the soccer ball. "And what do you think she's going to do when she has what she wants? Leave quietly? She's evil, Raimundo! She wants to plummet the world into a thousand years of darkness, and you're helping her do it!"

"Not my problem. After this Xiaolin Showdown is over, I'm leaving the temple and never coming back." Still matching Jack's footwork, albeit with slightly less clumsiness, he snorted. "Not that you'd welcome me back, anyway, after all this."

"I don't know," Jack mumbled, twiddling his fingers. "You're my friend, so... I might?"

Raimundo froze. "What?"

Jack paused, too, and he pulled the goggles off his eyes to meet Raimundo's gaze. "I mean, don't get me wrong: you're being a real jerk right now. But you've been living at the temple with us for months, and... I dunno, I don't think you're a bad person. You're kinda cool, actually. So even if you don't care about me or the other monks or the world or whatever, you're still my teammate, you know? I don't wanna lose the Heart of Jong, but I'd rather lose some stupid Shen Gong Wu than lose you."

Raimundo stared at him, expression unreadable. As Jack's brain caught up with his mouth, a blush spread across his face to both of his ears, and he slammed the goggles back over his eyes. He peered around and bit his lip. "Uh-oh. Um..."

"What?" asked Raimundo, a line creasing between his eyebrows.

Jack pivoted in place, studying the empty soccer field before he gave a sheepish smile. "Well, uh, it looks like all your body heat faded off the ball. I have no idea where it is now."

Raimundo gawked, and then his teeth pulled back in a furious grimace. "Jack! Jack, you stupid-" Gripping at his hair, he screwed his eyes shut, and after a sharp intake of breath, he shouted, "WIND!"

A gust of air burst away from him in an expanding circle. Jack yelped and fell back in the blast, and the Shroud of Shadows lifted into the air, revealing the soccer ball a short distance from his goal. Without summoning the Jetbootsu at all, Raimundo flew to the ball and kicked it back up the field with all his might. The ball soared over Jack's head, bounced once, and smacked into the net of the opposite goal.

The ground shook, and in another eruption of light, the field disappeared. The vault's walls reassembled themselves around the two teens, and as the room turned dark again, Jack landed on his back, empty-handed.

Wuya's voice drifted down, "Brilliant, Raimundo! Using a Xiaolin element to defeat a Xiaolin monk: very impressive back-stabbing."

Jack sat up gingerly. Raimundo stood at the doorway with the Heart of Jong in one hand, the Jetbootsu in the other, and the Shroud of Shadows draped across his shoulders. He frowned at the Shen Gong Wu like he wasn't entirely certain how they'd gotten there.

"And now you have all the pieces of the puzzle!" Wuya swirled around him, grin filling half of her mask. "Come, Raimundo, and you can complete your end of the bargain!"

Jack's shoulders slumped, and he started blinking away the heat in his eyes. Raimundo's gaze turned to him, head tilted a fraction. Then, pulling his hood down to settle against his neck, he faced the ghost and asked, "Who's Mala Mala Jong?"

Wuya paused, tendrils spilling around her. "What?"

"You've kept me in the dark long enough, Wuya: who is Mala Mala Jong, and why do you want to summon him?"

Wuya's arms, identical to the strands of her hair, came together in front of her, but her smile remained rigid. "I do not see why that matters to you, my dear boy. After all, you said so yourself: you don't care about the feud between the Xiaolin and Heylin sides."

"Speaking of dodging questions," said Raimundo, "I've got another one: who let you out? Master Fung said some dude named Dashi locked you away in a puzzle box, which is why you've been gone for 1,500 years. But someone must have let you out, and they must be the same person who hired that fat ninja. Who was it?"

Little sparks of electricity began to flicker around Wuya's incorporeal form. "You do not need to concern yourself with these things, Raimundo. We had a deal, and it is your turn to pay the piper. You have to summon Mala Mala Jong so that I can finally lay waste to this hapless temple!"

"I don't, actually." Raimundo's mouth curved upward at Wuya's raspy growl. "You never told me anything about Mala Mala Jong, so slapping him together was not part of the bargain. My end of the deal was to steal the Shen Gong Wu to make him. Looks like I just finished doing that, which means my part is done." He held out his arms and let the Heart of Jong and Jetbootsu clatter to the floor. "So now I'm giving them back."

Jack gasped. He tried to jump to his feet, but his body had run out of adrenaline; he flailed on the floor like a beached fish and had to land on his hands to keep from falling over. Wuya watched the Shen Gong Wu drop, and her outrage echoed through the vault, "You can't do that!"

Beaming, Raimundo countered, "I'd like to see you try to stop me."

The electricity crackling through Wuya's body burst across the vault, but the light passed harmlessly through both teens. The witch expanded her size and screeched, "Mark my words, Raimundo: you haven't seen the last of me! I won't forget this!"

"Wind!" Raimundo called, slapping his hands together. Air gusted through the vault and tossed the shrieking ghost across the room. She passed through the wall, and her curses and outcries faded into nothing.

With a mere roll of his eyes, Raimundo strode away from the doorway and toward a stone column near the golden bells. Panting, Jack finally managed to heave himself to his feet. By the time he did, Raimundo had pulled something out from behind the column. He walked back to Jack and held out a dingy, open backpack. Inside gleamed all the other missing Shen Gong Wu.

"She couldn't take them from me," said Raimundo, avoiding eye contact. "So I wasn't really sure what she wanted with them for a while. I didn't care, really." He pushed the backpack into Jack's arms, and his head ducked down. "Sorry."

Jack's googly-eyed slippers shuffled beneath him. "You brought them back, though."

"Well." Raimundo let his shoulders drop, and his hands went into his pockets. "I doubt Master Monk Chase will see it that way." Glancing up shyly, he pulled out a hand to tap at his own forehead. "That was a rad trick with the goggles, dude. I was wrong about you; you'll make a really cool Xiaolin Dragon someday." After scratching at his hair with an index finger, he waved at Jack and walked to the door. "Well. Uh. See ya, I guess."

Jack blinked, dropped the bag of Shen Gong Wu, and trotted after him. "Wait, you're still leaving?"

"Got no choice, right?" Raimundo stepped outside and tilted his head up toward the stars. "I teamed up with a Heylin witch and stole half our Wu. Better to hit the road than to wait for Master Monk Chase to throw me out."

Jack paused at the top of the stairs, and his hand went up into his hair. "Why does Chase have to know?"

Raimundo glanced back at Jack. "Aren't you going to tell him what happened?"

"I'm not a snitch." Eyes turning round, Jack bit his lip and studied his slippers. "I mean, you dumped her and brought all the Wu back, so what does it matter? Water off a duck's back, I think. You're not gonna betray us for anyone else, right? Like, give all our stuff to Guan, instead?"

Raimundo wrinkled his nose. "Eww, no! I hate that guy. Next time I see Guan, I'm kicking his butt."

Jack snorted with laughter at the unexpected response. Wrapping an arm around his rib cage and wincing a bit at the bruises, he grinned and said, "Well, you can't kick Guan's butt if you leave and never see him again, can you?"

"Hmm." Raimundo's mouth curved into the first sincere smile Jack had seen from him that evening. "I guess that's all the incentive I need, huh?" The smile dropped after a second, and his head ducked down again. Ears red, he murmured, "Thanks."

Though a small, logical part of Jack's brain couldn't help but wonder if forgiveness was a smart decision after all, he reached over and pulled Raimundo into a side hug. "No problem."

* * *

Author's notes: This fic might go on hiatus for a while. I've had some family things come up, and I'm also thinking about applying for an MFA. Either way, I'm going to be busy for a while. Sorry to keep you waiting!


	11. Chapter 11

_Dear Clay,_

 _Sorry I haven't written in a while. I know your dad got angry about that phone bill you got, so I'm not going to call anymore unless it's an emergency, K? I'm not used to snail mail though, LOL. (It took me forever to find stamps!)_

 _You won't believe this, but all our missing Shen Gong Wu came back! Or, maybe I should say that Jack "found" them. He said that Guan showed up in the middle of the night to steal the Heart of Jong, and Jack's robots "totally annihilatified him!" There was this big mess in the vault with all these broken robot parts, but I'm not really buying it. I think Jack just borrowed the Wu and staged the whole thing so he wouldn't get in trouble._

 _And you know what, I bet Raimundo helped him out. He's been acting weirder than usual lately. He and Jack were both really nervous and sweaty that morning (which is normal for Jack, let's be fair), and he keeps following Jack around like they're suddenly best friends. I could have sworn I saw him blushing. Want to take bets on how long before I catch them making out somewhere?_

 _You don't have to worry about Omi being mad at Jack anymore. He completely bought the Guan vs. Jack story. I didn't know he was that gullible, but I guess it's more important that they're friends again._

 _The Orb of Tornami revealed itself this morning, but Guan never showed up for it. Master Monk Chase mentioned something about "rising to the next level" after training today. He wants to train us to become Xiaolin Apprentices, though he made it sound like we're going to have to prove ourselves somehow. Until we have that rematch against Guan, I'm not sure how we're going to do that._

 _But enough about us! How have you been? Were you able to talk to your dad about coming back?_

 _TTYL,_

 _Kimiko_

* * *

 _Dear Clay,_

 _I hope this letter finds you well. As I am certain Kimiko has told you, our Shen Gong Wu have been found and returned to the vault. The other students are now training to rise to Xiaolin Apprentice._

 _Regarding your question in your last letter, you are indeed correct that one does not "use" tai chi for fighting. Tai chi is used for training. In a fight, you do whatever it takes to win. If you restrict yourself to specific moves and practices while fighting, you are severely limiting yourself. Regardless, it is essential that you practice your tai chi with conscious martial intent, or you will not fully derive the benefits of the art._

 _I am pleased to hear that you have still not seen any sign of Hannibal Bean or Guan. I also found your explanation of the differences between buzzards and vultures quite educational._

 _Please keep in touch._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Master Monk Chase_

* * *

Though Clay had read both letters several times since he received them a few days ago, he perused them once again at the kitchen table while eating his hastily made ham and cheese sandwich. Judging by the dates on both letters, Kimiko and Chase must have written them weeks ago. Clay studied Chase's elegant, swirly handwriting and all the goofy doodles in the margins of Kimiko's letter, and he wondered what adventures he had missed in the meantime.

At the other end of the kitchen, his father stood at the corded landline on the wall, holding the phone to his ear and arguing, "Well, it ain't my fault Patty ain't tryin' to keep his grades up. You're spoilin' him with those dang video games. Send him back to the ranch for a week, and I'll whip 'im back into shape." Whatever Clay's mother said in response made him scowl. Pressing a fist into the wall and leaning against it, he snapped, "There ya go again tryin' to make me into the bad guy."

Clay kept his head low and drummed his fingers on the table. He had been hoping to broach the topic of the Xiaolin Temple today, but nothing put his father in a bad mood quite as swiftly as an argument with Clay's mom, the former and now divorced Mrs. Bailey. Stuffing the bread crust into his mouth, he crept away from the kitchen table and out the back door. Some of the horses needed their hooves trimmed, and the tractor needed its tire pressure checked. If he finished his chores quickly, he might be able to sneak in some time to apply Master Monk Chase's advice to his secret tai chi practice.

When he stepped into the barn, his gaze shifted upward to the ceiling joists. Three crows perched on the beams above him, silent and unmoving. Clay, who certainly didn't know much about Guan's animal servants but knew plenty about animals themselves, did not acknowledge them at first. He strolled to the horse stalls, where his favorite chestnut mare paced nervously back and forth. With a grimace and a shake of his head, Clay looked up at the birds and asked, "Can I help y'all?"

Unblinking, all three crows stared at him. Since his father wasn't around to see him talking to what could honestly be a bunch of regular birds, Clay put his hands on his hips and said, "Listen, y'all are spookin' my horses, so you're gonna have to leave. If you're some o' Guan's spies or somethin', I ain't sure what you're hopin' to accomplish here. I don't have any Shen Gong Wu, and I ain't a Xiaolin Dragon anymore."

"And isn't that a shame?" said a deep voice behind him. Clay spun around to face the barn entryway, where stood the largest man he had ever seen. With wide shoulders and a bald head, the man clutched a long wooden spear and narrowed his eyes at the young cowboy.

Unable to remember the last time he'd been the smallest person in the room, it took all of Clay's willpower to keep his shoulders square and his back straight. He nodded his head politely. "Howdy. I reckon you're Heylin Warlord Guan. You'll wanna be careful; your head and shoulder's gonna get sunburned out in these parts."

"And you must be Clay, the most recent Xiaolin Dragon of Earth." Guan stepped into the barn, and the horses shuffled and stomped their feet in the stalls. "I have seen many Dragons of Earth in my lifetime. You have the potential to unleash utter devastation upon the world, and yet here you are, cowed by your father."

Clay stayed exactly where he stood, even while the man crept closer until Clay had to tilt his hat back to look directly up at him. Somehow keeping his voice steady, Clay said, "Frankly, that ain't any of your business, sir."

Guan, whose mouth seemed incapable of curving into a smile, remained stoic. "I was also chosen to be a Dragon of Earth long ago. You and I have a lot in common, and I know you are capable of far more than your father realizes. You do not need him to force you away from the Xiaolin side; you can choose your path like I did."

Clay planted himself between Guan and the stalls, refusing to expose the horses even though he was now certain that they weren't Guan's target. He said, "Sorry, but I ain't too keen on takin' career advice from a fella who works for a vegetable."

Guan snorted, but his scowl seemed permanently etched into his jaw. "Hannibal Bean has offered me tremendous power and freedom in exchange for my services." Finally stepping back, he casually strolled back toward the barn entryway, and one of the crows drifted down to land on his shoulder. "The Lao Mang Long soup keeps me forever young and practically immortal. You, on the other hand, are stuck on a ranch you hate with a man who barely understands you."

Clay's hands clenched into fists, and his face flushed. "If you think I'd ever hate my ranch or my dad, then I reckon your crows haven't been payin' much attention." He shifted to stand in the middle of the barn hallway with his arms crossed. "Texas is my home, and I'm proud of it. If the ranch is where my dad wants me, then it's where I'm stayin'."

"That is certainly what your father wants." Guan turned his head to stare him down. "What do you want?"

Clay matched his gaze. "I could ask you the same thing."

"So could I," said a third voice. Guan turned, and Clay gasped. Outside the barn door with his fists on his hips stood Mr. Bailey, who snarled, "Or more specifically, maybe I ought to ask who you are and what in tarnation you think you're doin', cornerin' my boy in my barn."

Clay couldn't see the answering expression on Guan's face, but his heart jumped in his throat when he realized that Guan towered over his own father, the strongest and toughest person he knew. He rushed toward the two and said, "Daddy, hold on, I got it sorted-"

"What a surprise." Guan's spear shifted, and Mr. Bailey had to catch it with both hands to keep it away from his own neck. Pointing at the gleaming star tied around the older cowboy's collar, Guan said, "You have the Star Hanabi. Did Chase give it to you, or did you take it from your more deserving son?"

Mr. Bailey bared his teeth, and his free hand wrapped around the metallic star. "You must be out o' your flippin' mind. The Lone Star o' Texas has been in my family since the first settlers dug it up in 1849-"

"You think 154 years is a long time? How cute."

"I've had about enough o' you!" Mr. Bailey shoved the spear away, and Guan casually let it swing back to rest on his own shoulder. The crow on his other shoulder cawed out a laugh. Mr. Bailey pointed up at him. "I don't care who you are; I want you off my property before I get rid o' you myself!"

Clay stood frozen behind Guan, watching his father like he was instinctively waiting for orders. All three crows took to the air and began to circle the men. To Clay's surprise, Guan managed to actually crack a sneer. "I wasn't planning on staying, but I will not tolerate a thief." His spear lashed out like a cobra, striking Mr. Bailey in the neck and sending him crashing to the ground in a spurt of blood.

"NO!" Clay barreled forward, shoving Guan's arm out of the way and rushing to his father. Clutching at his throat, Mr. Bailey gave a heaving cough and sat up. Clay dropped to his knees next to him, fingers skidding across something metal in the dirt before he grabbed his father's shoulders. "Daddy! Daddy, don't-"

"Don't get your undies in a bundle, Clay." Mr. Bailey gritted his teeth, pulled his hand away, and grimaced at the blood on his fingers. A red stain started to blossom on his white shirt, dripping down. "It's just a lil nick."

Clay heard something scuff across the dirt next to him, and he spun around in time to watch the bloodied end of Guan's spear snag the Lone Star of Texas off the ground. Guan caught the star in his meaty fist and said, "This does not belong to you."

Mr. Bailey grabbed at Clay's arm and tried to pull himself to his feet, snarling, "You son of a motherless goat, you better give that back if you know what's good for ya-" He wheezed and stumbled, but Clay caught him before he could hit the dirt again.

Guan raised his hand and snapped his fingers. The three birds swooped down, and their caws changed to roars. In a burst of feathers and fur, they transformed into three tigers and landed with toothy grins in front of the cowboys.

Clay's mouth dropped open, and he frantically tried to drag his father away from the danger. Mr. Bailey kicked and hollered, "Daggumit, Clay, quit worryin' 'bout me and go teach that friggin' magic-wieldin' peckerhead a lesson!" One of the tigers pounced and clamped its teeth around Mr. Bailey's boot.

"GET OFF HIM!" Clay released his father and lunged onto the tiger. His weight slammed the shrieking cat into the dirt. Clay grabbed it by the scruff, rolled back onto his feet, and threw the tiger at Guan, who merely stepped out of the way. The other two cats snarled and charged, and Clay yelled, "EARTH!"

He whirled into a spinning kick that struck one tiger in the jaw with a sickening crack. The other tiger landed on top of Clay's shoulders with its claws digging into his skin, but he grabbed its legs and threw himself to the ground, crushing the tiger's chest under his own. The tiger squealed, and when Clay pressed his hands to the ground and sat back up, it scrambled out from under him and fled.

Clay winced when he stood. The three tigers hid behind Guan, who glanced back long enough to give them all a disapproving glare. Clay braced his legs and gulped, remembering Kimiko's vivid description of Guan's invincible monster form, but he squared his shoulders nonetheless.

Guan lifted his chin and tossed the Lone Star of Texas into the dirt at Clay's feet.

While Clay blinked down at his family heirloom, Guan said, "That Shen Gong Wu is called the Star Hanabi. Wielded by a competent Dragon of Earth, it can unleash unspeakable havoc. Use it wisely."

Watching Guan, Clay slowly bent down and picked up the Lone Star of Texas. Muscles still tight, he asked, "Why in tarnation did you take it from us if you were just gonna give it back?"

"You and I are worthy of the Star Hanabi's power. He is not." Guan wrinkled his nose at Clay's father, who panted on the ground behind Clay. "I merely gave it to a deserving owner. You should thank me."

Heart pounding, Clay glanced back and watched his dad struggle to his feet. Eyeing the red-stained shirt, Clay bared his teeth and snapped, "You expect me to thank you for-?" He spun around to face Guan again, but the rest of his retort fell in his throat. Guan and his jungle cats were gone. The ranch had nothing but flat desert prairie all around for miles, and yet the Heylin Warlord had vanished.

Clay gulped for air for a few seconds, waiting. When no one sprang out to attack him, he spun around and stumbled back to his father's side. No longer as panicked as before, he could now see that Guan had indeed only nicked the side of his father's neck. Face red and fingers clenching around an invisible throat, Mr. Bailey snarled and muttered under his breath until his son approached.

Clay held out the Lone Star of Texas for his father to take. "Daddy? I, um, I got the Lone Star back." The words sounded hollow in his throat.

Turning quiet, Mr. Bailey stared down at the heirloom for a long moment, and then he turned away. "I was plannin' on passin' the Lone Star o' Texas down to you when you proved you were a man." He rested his unbloodied hand on his hip and peered out into the desert horizon. "You got rid o' those tigers. I reckon that's man enough for me. You keep it, Clay."

Clay bowed his head, and he held the Lone Star gently between his fingers. A red drop stained one of the star's points. He wiped off the blood, stepped forward, and walked around his father until he could face him directly. "Sorry, Daddy, but... I think you and I have different ideas 'bout what makes someone a man." He held out the star again. "I'm glad I proved myself to you, but I think I need to prove things to myself first."

Mr. Bailey's mouth dropped open, and he almost looked ready to argue. Clay gritted his teeth, ready to stand his ground, but Mr. Bailey simply tilted his head and then held out his hand. When his son dropped the heirloom into his palm, his mouth curved up into a smile that Clay couldn't interpret. Mr. Bailey sighed and asked, "You wanna go back to that temple, don't ya?"

"Honestly, I really just wanna take you to the hospital." The tension in Clay's shoulders eased a little when his father laughed in response. He ducked his head a little and nervously ran his fingers on the brim of his hat. "But uh, maybe after that. Yeah."

"Tell ya what." Mr. Bailey started walking back to the farmhouse, and Clay had to trot after him. "You call them Xiaolin folks, and I'll get myself patched up. You go back to that temple and prove whatever you gotta prove, and after you've taught that giant brute what makes a real man, you let me know." He stepped onto the porch, grabbed at the doorknob, and held the door open for Clay. "I'll have the Lone Star waitin' for ya."


	12. Chapter 12

The morning after Raimundo's and Jack's secret Xiaolin Showdown in the vault, Jack learned that either he was an extremely talented liar, or Omi was the dumbest person he had ever met. The tiny monk followed Jack around the entire day, demanding details of Jack's "battle" with Heylin Warlord Guan. Under the constant prompting, Jack's fibs grew more elaborate and ridiculous, describing his own epic genius dramatically triumphing over the intellectually inferior Guan, who could only weep at his own inadequacies as he surrendered the stolen Shen Gong Wu and fled the Xiaolin vault. If Raimundo happened to be nearby during these tall tales, Jack could spot muscles in his face twitching.

If Master Monk Chase had doubts about Jack's honesty, he did not show it. In the following weeks, his training of the young monks grew more intense, leaving Jack almost too exhausted to sneak to his lair in the night to work on his robots. Meanwhile, only two more Shen Gong Wu revealed themselves. Omi took surprisingly little interest in the Orb of Tornami; he seemed to have already selected the Sword of the Storm as his favorite.

The second reveal was the Monkey Staff, and it brought all of Jack's robotic fixations to a sudden, screeching halt.

Unfortunately for everyone, the screeching was literal.

"I HAVE A TAIL!" Jack yelled from the roof. Barely noticing that brown fur had sprouted on his hand while he waved down at the other young monks, he wrapped his new tail around the Monkey Staff and raised himself up into the air. His voice broke into a cacophony of loud, hooting gibberish for a moment before he could form another sentence. "Let's see you climb up this high all by yourself, Cue Ball!"

Omi shouted up at him, "I have been able to climb a roof for years, and I did not need a Shen Gong Wu to do it!"

"Hey! Hey! Watch this!" In a movement more fluid than Jack had ever performed in his life, he slid down the roof, sprang over the heads of the others, and grabbed onto the tallest branch of the cherry tree behind them. Swinging down in a series of front and back flips, he landed gracefully on his furry feet and took a dramatic bow. Another burst of monkey-like gibberish spilled out of him before he finally managed to say, "Ha! Look at that! I've got all the agility and strength of a monkey!"

Omi scowled. "Jack Spicer, the longer you hold onto that Shen Gong Wu, the more monkey-like you become. For the sake of your sanity, I insist that you drop the Monkey Staff at once."

Jack raised a foot to his head, and his toes picked a flea out of his hair. "I think you're exaggerating."

Raimundo pressed a palm to his mouth to mask a snicker. When Kimiko tilted her head to give him a rather pointed side-eye, he coughed and crossed his arms. "I dunno, Omi, this Wu seems pretty useful for Jack, at least. Now he can keep up with us in physical strength and stuff."

"Exactly!" Jack nuzzled his fuzzy cheek to the Shen Gong Wu. "Besides, the Monkey Staff and I have a special connection. I'm Year of the Monkey, you know."

"No, you're not," said Omi flatly. "You're thirteen years old, which makes you Year of the Rooster. You would have to be fourteen to be Year of the Monkey." When Jack ignored his fact-checking, he glanced back at Raimundo. "And since when do you have an opinion about this sort of thing? You do not even like the Shen Gong Wu. "

Kimiko glanced down at her phone with a smirk. "He likes Jack, though."

Raimundo narrowed his eyes at her, and she smiled blandly at him. Jack, who did not notice Kimiko's implications, and Omi, who did not care, stared at each other in the briefest impasse. Then Omi lunged, and Jack dodged with a swift jump and an earsplitting monkey screech. When Omi rolled back onto his feet, Jack landed and cackled, "HA! Too slow, Chrome Dome-"

He yelped when Raimundo stepped forward and yanked the Monkey Staff out of his hands. Jack stumbled at the immediate change in balance, and the monkey-like noises spilling out of his mouth dissolved into pained whimpers while his fur and tail receded back into his body. Raimundo stiffened at the noise and stuttered, "W-whoa, dude, are you okay?" Jack coughed, pressed a hand to his knee, and held a thumb up. Raimundo said sheepishly, "I didn't think that was gonna hurt."

Jack blinked rapidly and shook his head. "N-neither did I, it's cool..." He rubbed at his throat, raw from all the shrieking. He hadn't noticed how fuzzy his mind had turned under the Monkey Staff's influence, not until the Wu had been ripped away from him, but he was still going to miss that short-lived body strength.

Raimundo gave him a sympathetic half-smile. "I think Omi's got a point. Maybe you should only use this thing during battle, when you need it." He raised an eyebrow. "For the sake of our eardrums, if nothing else."

"For once, I agree with Raimundo." Omi raised his chin. "Though you should strive to not need it at all. The Monkey Staff can be dangerous if used too often, and besides, Master Monk Chase says that Shen Gong Wu are merely crutches for true power. You should not become too reliant on anything outside your own strength and will."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Jack stretched his arms and laced his fingers behind his head. Beaming at the group, he said, "But come on, a Wu that turns me into my favorite animal and makes me fast enough to dodge Omi? I call dibs, baby! It's got my name all over it!"

"Monkeys are your favorite animal, huh?" said Kimiko, idly tapping at her phone. "Raimundo is Year of the Monkey, isn't he? He's a year older than you."

Raimundo turned to give her another bewildered, calculating stare. Jack bobbed his head in a nod. "Yeah! Monkeys are great! They're the only animals that know how to use tools." He puffed out his chest and wiggled his eyebrows. "They're the geniuses of the animal kingdom, just like me."

"Actually, Jack," called out a familiar voice, "While there are a lot o' tool-wieldin' species o' monkeys, they aren't the only ones. Folks have seen Tursiops truncatus and Enhydra lutris doin' the same thing." When the monks looked up, Clay blushed from the porch, glanced down with a shy smile, and added, "Uh. Yeah. Dolphins and otters."

"Clay!" Kimiko, Omi, and Jack rushed to the cowboy, and Kimiko jumped to wrap her arms around his neck. Clay's cheeks turned pink when he caught her. Her wide smile turned into a pout when she lightly punched his shoulder and said, "You never wrote back to me, you jerk!"

"Sorry," Clay mumbled, face still red as he gently set her back down. "Didn't have much interestin' goin' on for a while. Nothin' to write about. I liked your letters, though."

"Were you able to teach your father the error of his ways so you could return?" asked Omi.

Clay bit his lip and shrugged. "Somethin' like that." His head snapped up when Master Monk Chase walked past him with an enormous trunk and saddle resting casually on his shoulder. "M-Master Chase, I'll get those! They're awfully heavy-"

"I am far stronger than I look, young monk," said Master Monk Chase with a raised eyebrow and a smile, "and I believe you and your friends have some catching up to do. Not to worry; your room will be as it was by the time you come inside."

"I... Y-yes, sir."

Omi tugged at Clay's sleeve. "Did Kimiko tell you about Guan's attack on our vault? Jack Spicer brought shame to the temple in our fight for the Jetbootsu, but then he redeemed himself by outwitting Guan with his Jackbots!"

Clay's gaze quickly swept across the group. Kimiko rolled her eyes and shook her head, and Raimundo kept his expression utterly neutral. Omi beamed at Jack with pride, and Jack hoped his answering smile didn't look forced. Clay said carefully, "I sure did hear about that."

"Yeah, it was really cool!" Jack swung a weak fist. "See, I had all these Jackbots hidden away, and Guan, he- he had never seen a robot before, and it freaked him out, you know? He's like those old grannies that have never used a computer, and uh-"

Clay decided to spare Jack from the hole into which he was digging himself. "Really? Guan doesn't strike me as someone who's easily intimidated, 'specially when he's got all those tigers to fight for him."

Jack cleared his throat. "Uh. Tigers?"

"At least three o' them." Clay crossed his arms and frowned at the dirt. "They start as crows, and I reckon that's to spy on you without lookin' too suspicious. At least, that's what they were doin' at the ranch."

Kimiko gasped, and Omi's hands clenched into tiny fists. Jack glanced over at Raimundo, who raised an eyebrow and asked, "The ranch? Like, yourranch? He went to your house?"

Clay scratched at his hair while his mouth curled into a scowl. "I still don't really know why. He tried talkin' about how we have stuff in common or somethin', and then he attacked my dad, but then I fought off his cats and he left. Didn't seem to be much point to it. But I figured if I'm the one he's after, then my family'll be safer as long as I'm here."

"Wait, back up." Kimiko took a step backward at her own words and held up a finger. "You fought three tigers? But you don't have a scratch on you."

Clay blushed again and kicked at the dirt a little. "Uh. I was kinda mad."

Kimiko's eyebrows went up into her bangs, and Raimundo's mouth actually fell open. Jack's body briefly debated between recoiling in fear or swooning on the spot, and it finally settled on an impressed nod and a golf clap. Omi bounced on the soles of his feet and cried out, "Excellent! Between your strength and Jack's robots, Warlord Guan will surely suffer a humiliating defeat the next time he sees us!"

"Yeah, whenever that is." After staring at Clay with a hint of newfound misgiving, Raimundo's posture relaxed, and he turned to the others. "Guan doesn't really seem to have a pattern. He fought us once, and then he fought Cl- he fought Jack in the vault, and then he fought Clay in his own turf. What does he want?"

"Not to mention that Wuya is supposed to be out there somewhere, too," said Kimiko, "and she still hasn't shown up. We don't even know what she looks like."

Raimundo, to his credit, nodded compliantly and said, "Right. We haven't seen Hannibal Bean anywhere, either." He shrugged and rolled his eyes. "Not that I blame him. Can't be too hard for us to fight off the musical fruit himself." His mouth curved up a bit when Jack giggled at his words.

"All of these villains have behaved most mysteriously," said Omi with a somber nod. "We should consult Master Monk Chase and see what he thinks about their actions... or lack thereof..."

Jack drummed his fingers across his chin and nodded with the rest of the group. Personally, he didn't mind the Heylin side's inexplicable stalling; it gave him more time to perfect his Jackbots and catch up with his teammates. Now that he had the Monkey Staff, though, he was as eager as the others to see how much evil butt they could kick.

As if on cue with Jack's thoughts, Dojo's voice rang out across the porch, "Look alive, kids! We got a hot new Shen Gong Wu!"

While the young monks gathered around the dragon and the open scroll, Clay smirked and said, "I ain't even been here for five minutes, and y'all are already puttin' me to work." Raimundo gave an amused snort, and even though the noise wasn't loud, Clay glanced at him in surprise.

"It's called the Mask of Rio," said Dojo, spreading his little arms across the round display on the scroll, where a stick figure put a large, ugly mask on its face and turned translucent. "It allows the wielder to blend into their surroundings."

Kimiko tilted her head and blew a pigtail out of her face. "So... it's just like the Shroud of Shadows?"

"Ehh, sort of." Dojo held his palms up and shrugged. "They basically do the same thing, but they have different weaknesses. The Shroud of Shadows can slip off pretty easily if you aren't holding onto it, but it turns you completely invisible. The Mask of Rio will stay on your face without you holding it, but people can still see you if you move around a lot."

"So it's more like camouflage," said Clay, tilting his hat back.

"Perhaps it is not as impressive as the Shroud of Shadows," said Omi, yanking the scroll out of Dojo's hands and rolling it up, "but we still must ensure that it does not fall into Heylin hands!"

Dojo pouted for a second at having his scroll ripped away from him, but he recovered quickly and bounded out into the open courtyard, expanding to full size. Clay, Omi, and Kimiko followed, but Jack glanced over at Raimundo, who stood with his muscles tense and still. With a shaky breath, Raimundo looked up at the dragon and asked, "Might be a stupid question, but uh, where is the Mask of Rio? Is the name just a coincidence, or...?"

"Rio de Janeiro," said Dojo, arching his neck high. "Now, whether the mask is named after the city, or the city is named after the mask, I have no idea. Dashi had a tendency to know things, even the names of places that wouldn't exist for another thousand years, apparently."

Jack watched a bizarre range of expressions flash rapidly across Raimundo's face before the teen finally murmured, "That's where my family lives."

"Your family is in Rio?" Omi gasped and grinned. "Ooh, can we meet them?"

"Sure." The answer seemed automatic, almost distracted. Raimundo's eyebrows furrowed. Jack leaned over and waved his hand in front of the teen's face, prompting Raimundo to blink and shake his head as if to clear it. "Uh. You know what? Yeah! I haven't seen the fam in a while." He scratched at his hair, smiling fondly. "I kinda miss them."

"A whole family of dark, broody, handsome types?" Jack asked with a smirk, resting his chin between his thumb and index finger. "This I gotta see."

With another snort of laughter, Raimundo rolled his eyes at him. "Sorry to disappoint you, querido, but my family's a cheerful bunch. I'm the odd one out."

"It is decided, then!" Omi clambered onto Dojo, followed by the rest of the group. "First we shall obtain the Mask of Rio, and then we shall meet Raimundo's family!"

* * *

As the group swiftly crossed the Pacific Ocean, Jack sat behind Raimundo and watched him grow tenser and twitchier. Though Raimundo's grumpiness had been fading for the past few weeks, which Jack had assumed was connected to Wuya's disappearance, the Mask of Rio's reveal seemed to have brought it back at full force. Raimundo's gaze remained fixed on Dojo's back, his fingers squirmed in his lap, and his back and shoulders looked as stiff as an oak tree. Jack's own shoulders drooped at the change; he hadn't realized how much he preferred the new Raimundo until now.

Scooting forward, he poked Raimundo's arm, and the teen jumped at the contact. Leaning over, Jack asked, "What's got your goat, Beta Brawn? Got some dark, embarrassing secret about your family you don't want us to know?"

Eyes round, Raimundo grabbed at the spot where Jack had touched him. "My family? N-no, my family's great!" Suddenly talking rapidly, he said, "I mean, Leticia can get kinda grouchy, but she works the ticket booth at the circus, so she's kinda lost faith in humanity. And Estela's always itching for a fight, but she's a big softy at heart. Giovanna's the only embarrassing one, but that's because puns are her favorite art form."

Delighted to have somehow pulled Raimundo right out of his anxious funk, Jack bounced in place a bit. "So you've got like, at least five brothers and sisters? What's it like having siblings?"

"Eight. It's, uh," Raimundo puzzled over the right word before he answered with a weak smile, "loud."

Dojo started to coast downward through the clouds, and an enormous glittering city opened up below them. As they drifted past the Christ the Redeemer and approached a small patch of forest within the buildings, Raimundo leaned down and said, "Wait, that's _Floresta da Tijuca_. I've been there. My family is, like, a few kilometers away."

Eyeing the massive city to the south, Clay whistled and said, "That's pretty lucky. We won't have to wander far, then."

Jack nearly jumped when Raimundo suddenly leaned closer to him and murmured, "Do you think things happen for a reason?"

A little too distracted by the intense green in Raimundo's eyes to focus on the question that had honestly come out of left field, Jack said, "Uh."

"Master Fung believes so!" said Omi, who must have assumed the question was for everyone. "He says that destiny is one of the most powerful forces in the universe. However, Master Monk Chase disagrees with him and says we are the makers of our own fate. Why do you ask?"

Raimundo pulled away from Jack, scowling into the distance. Completely baffled at the teen's mood swings, Jack let his own hands flail in front of him in bewilderment. Clay and Kimiko shrugged sympathetically at him, and Dojo finally touched down in the middle of Tijuca Forest.

The monks explored their surroundings with their usual caution, unconvinced that Guan or Wuya would show up but ready for battle nevertheless. Jack clung to the Monkey Staff, and Kimiko had the Tangle Web Comb nestled in her ponytail. They spotted a bunch of wild animals in the trees, including a few brown monkeys, a possum, and a silver and black parrot with red frills, but there was no sign of the Heylin side. After about twenty minutes of searching, Raimundo pointed out an arm-less white statue on display among the trees. On the statue's face sat a frilly, red and gold mask.

"Easy pickings," said Clay, watching Raimundo climb onto the statue and pull off the mask. "Kinda surprised none of the Heylin baddies wanted this one."

The other monks shrugged, and Jack puffed out his chest and swung the Monkey Staff around. "Guan must have been too scared to fight me again. Didn't want me kicking his butt with an audience this time."

Omi bobbed his head in a nod, and Clay said, "Something like that."

As the group gathered and started migrating toward the paved road that led out of the forest, Raimundo approached Jack and said quietly, "Dude, you know the best lies are the ones you don't keep drawing attention to, right? What are you gonna do when you see Guan for real?"

"I'll burn that bridge when I get to it," said Jack.

Raimundo blinked at him. "You mean you'll cross it, right?"

"I know what I said. Lead the way, Beta Brawn."

Raimundo's eyes rolled skyward. "Sure thing, _idiota_."

The other monks followed him out of the woods and into the city. The north section of Rio looked a little shabbier than the shiny, touristy pictures Jack had seen online and in books. As the group walked through the streets, he and Omi hovered close to the others, completely unused to the cramped designs of the residential buildings. Raimundo glared into the dark windows as he passed, clutching the Mask of Rio close and muttering something about " _favelas_."

After a few miles, they arrived at a worn-down but fairly pleasant neighborhood. In front of one house, large but shabby, Raimundo finally came to a stop. He scratched at his hair and said, "Kinda quiet. My little brothers must still be at school. I wonder if-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the door to the Pedrosa house opened, and chaos ensued.


	13. Chapter 13

If there was one thing for which Raimundo was grateful, it was how the front door was still too small for his entire family to simultaneously pounce on him. In a whirlwind of shrieks, smiles, and thick brown hair, three women leaped out the door and yanked him into a smothering hug. He squashed the sudden impulse to lash out and defend himself, an urge he had learned to tame around his own family; he kept his arms limp at his sides and protested with words instead. "Mom? Ana, Larissa, I can't breathe-"

His mother pulled his hoodie down and buried her face in his hair with a nuzzle that he probably should have found embarrassing. In Portuguese, she said, " _Raimundo! You didn't tell us you were coming home! I was about to go pick up the twins_ -"

" _Did you get taller, little bro?_ " The youngest of the three, Larissa, pulled away and raised a flat hand to compare her height to his, still finding herself an inch taller. " _You look great, and not just Pedrosa-genes great_ -"

" _I can still smell that cheap hair gel, bro, I told you to chuck that_ -" Ana, the tallest and thinnest of the group, glanced up and spotted the other Xiaolin Dragons in training. Setting Raimundo back onto the ground, she grinned and swapped to English. "So! Who's the posse you got here?"

Larissa scoffed and tossed back her elegant, high ponytail. "You can't tell? Unlike some people, I actually paid attention to Raimundo's letters. 'Sup, Xiaolin Warriors?" Her eyes swept across the group and paused on Clay. A slow smile spread across her face.

Jack rested the head of the Monkey Staff against his shoulder and stepped forward. "Hi! Jack Spicer, Xiaolin Boy Genius and Master of Metal."

"Ooh, big title," said Larissa, resting a hand on her skirted hip and curling her cherry red lips into a smirk. "You got any bite to go with that bark?"

Ana rolled her eyes. "For crying out loud, Larissa, show some manners."

Before Jack could square his shoulders and defend his honor, Larissa's smirk gave way to something like awe as she bent forward and studied his face. "Yo, Raimundo, you weren't kidding in your letters. His eyes are intense, dude."

The other monks glanced at Raimundo, whose face flushed scarlet when he snapped, "What? They're red! I thought it was cool! Don't make it weird, sis."

"Well, since Raimundo is going to be totally rude and not introduce us," Ana rested an elbow on Larissa's shoulder and waved, "I'm Ana, and this is Larissa. We're two of Raimundo's big sisters. The lovely lady behind us is our mom. You must be Kimiko-" She stretched out a hand to Kimiko, who smiled shyly and shook it. "Omi-" She brought her hand down for Omi to shake as well, and then her eyes lit up at the sight of the green dragon perched on Clay's shoulder. "Ooh! You're Dojo, right?"

Dojo preened at the attention, but before he could speak, Larissa batted her eyelashes and beamed at the cowboy. "And the sexy one must be Clay."

Kimiko raised an eyebrow, and Clay blushed and glanced down at his boots. "It's awfully nice to meet y'all."

"What a gentleman," Larissa cooed, earning an elbow in the ribs from her older sister.

Meanwhile, Raimundo stood next to his mother, the only person in his family who wasn't fluent in English. She watched the sisters' and monks' conversation unfold with a confused, helpless smile. Raimundo side-stepped closer to her and murmured in Portuguese, " _How have things been over here? Is everybody okay_?"

His mother's blank smile faded when she turned to him. She reached over and traced a gentle thumb over the dark circles under his eyes. " _You still aren't getting any sleep, are you_?"

" _Mom, I'm serious, I heard something on the news about a serial killer, and Wuya said- I heard from someone that he_ -"

She put a finger on his mouth. " _Raimundo, listen to me. It is my job to protect you, not the other way around._ " She cupped his face in her hands. " _I know how much you worry, and I know you're a hero at heart. That's why I let you go to the Xiaolin Temple. I thought you'd be happy there, making a difference and helping people._ "

" _But_ —"

" _Stop worrying about us. We're fine._ " She raised an eyebrow. " _And stop watching the news. It's all a bunch of exaggerated nonsense, anyway._ " She glanced over and frowned at Larissa, Ana, Jack, and Kimiko, who were now having an inexplicably heated debate about Jack Spicer's eyeliner while Omi, Clay, and Dojo watched.

"Listen, I admire the artistic intention, bringing out the red with the black," said Larissa, "but when you factor in the cheap brand and the weird line you've drawn down your cheek-"

"It's like a scar!" Jack protested. "It makes me look badass!"

"It makes you look like a try-hard. Look at Kimiko over here. Her eye shadow game? Beautiful. Flawless. On point. You should ask her for tips."

Kimiko beamed. "Thank you!"

Ana grabbed Larissa's arm and tried to pull her away. "Stop picking on Raimundo's new friends. If the redhead wants to wear tacky eyeliner, then mind your own business and let him!" She released her sister and started herding the other monks toward the house. "Raimundo, come on inside so everyone can meet each other! Estela has been dying to know what cool martial arts moves you're learning, and Giovanna wanted to show you her new textbook-"

Raimundo's fingers clung to the Mask of Rio, and the sincere excitement of seeing his family again battled the raw, sick feeling rising in his gut. He glanced back up the road toward the shanty town they had passed to get here. A weak, pathetic part of him had hoped he would never have the chance to use the information Wuya had given him so long ago, but now the opportunity had practically fallen into his lap. All he had to do was wait for a distraction.

* * *

Jack Spicer did not consider himself the type to get easily overwhelmed, but when Raimundo's two gorgeous sisters practically shoved him and the other monks into the Pedrosa house, he heard several rapidly talking voices filling the rooms and swiftly realized that he couldn't understand a single word.

" _Leticia, eu juro que se você roubou meu cachecol de novo, eu vou te matar_!"

" _Oh meu deus, cólicas. Meu menstruação vai ser uma puta esta semana-_ "

" _Quem porra colocou uma jarra de leite vazia na geladeira?_ "

While Raimundo buried his face in his hands and Jack silently brainstormed the mechanics of a Translator Bot, Ana yelled, "Yo, no swearing when we have kids in the house!"

Cackles and jeers answered her, " _Deixe Miguel e Marcos dizer porra!"_

"They're not home yet," Raimundo called. "It's just me."

The jeering gave way to surprised gasps, and then the house filled with the thunder of several people stampeding down the stairs. Jack and Kimiko clung to Clay for protection. Four more exceptionally pretty ladies flooded into the front hall, and Raimundo half-hid behind his teammates in a futile act of self-preservation. His family pounced on him like a pride of lionesses. Having no idea how to handle this many siblings in a room this small, the other monks were scattered from each other to the four corners of the room.

Jack, who was not a fan of enclosed spaces at even the best of times, could only back into a wall, where he found himself cornered by two sisters at once, both older than Larissa. "H-hi, I'm Jack-"

"Oh, we know who you are," said the shorter one in the tank top. She tossed her cropped hair back and grinned wickedly. "Raimundo told us all about you in his letters."

Jack sat up a bit straighter. "He writes about me? What does he say? Does he say I'm a genius?"

"More like a nerd."

"Hey!" Jack glared around the room, but Raimundo was too busy drowning in hugs to notice.

In the chaos, Jack spotted Omi, the first to clamber through the crowd and into the far roomier kitchen. Kimiko and Clay managed to hustle after him, leaving Jack alone in a room practically bursting with Pedrosas. A woman with her dark hair tied back in a bun had her arms wrapped around Raimundo's torso, and she dragged the hapless teen closer to Jack and said, "Well, _Dinho_ , aren't you going to introduce your awesome family to your warrior buddies?"

"I think you scared most of the warrior buddies away," muttered Raimundo. Gesturing weakly around the room, he said, "Uh, Jack, this is my fam. My mom's over there, and these are all my big sisters: Giovanna, Fernanda, Ana, Estela, Leticia, and Larissa. I'm the oldest boy, and my twin brothers are still at soccer practice, I guess."

Jack had already forgotten half the names by the time Raimundo finished his sentence. All he knew was Raimundo's good looks were definitely genetic: the whole room was filled with thick brown hair, tan skin, mischievous smiles, and bright gleaming eyes. Raimundo had his brows furrowed and his mouth pressed thin, but he wasn't making any attempt to wrestle himself free of his sister's grip.

"And you're Jack Spicer, the robot builder," said the woman holding Raimundo, who Jack was pretty sure was the oldest sister, Giovanna. "Raimundo writes about you all the time, mostly love letters and poetry."

"I—" Raimundo's voice was flat. "What."

"Oh yeah," said another grinning sister, leaning her elbow against the wall and curling her fingers around the end of her braided hair. "Long enraptured sonnets about your red eyes and your mullet-"

"No," said Raimundo.

"And your weird goggles, and your noodle arms-"

"No."

"And your gym sock smell-"

"He doesn't smell like gym socks," said Raimundo, but he realized his mistake as soon as the words were out. The sisters erupted into more laughing and jeering, and Raimundo's embarrassed, "SHUT UP," was lost in the noise.

Raimundo's mother, who Jack could only recognize because she was the only woman with gray in her hair and stress wrinkles on her face, rolled her eyes and said, " _Eu vou pegar o Miguel e o Marcos. Você vai se comportar enquanto eu estiver fora_?"

" _Claro, mãe,_ " said Giovanna. Expression stern, her mother nodded and stepped back outside.

Another sister, whose name Jack had forgotten, looked around and piped up, "Where'd the other monks go?"

At the kitchen doorway, where Clay, Kimiko, and Omi watched at a safe distance, Omi smiled and waved. Larissa practically climbed onto the shoulders of two other sisters and asked with a grin, "How am I supposed to win the cowboy's heart if he's hiding in the kitchen?" Clay's face flushed red, and he ducked out of sight.

"Hey, Raimundo," said Giovanna, hauling the teenager toward the front door, "Mom's gonna go get the twins; how about you go with her? She's spent the past few months worried sick about you, and besides, it's going to be a lot easier for us to show your friends all your embarrassing baby photos if you're not here."

Raimundo squirmed in her arms until she plopped him onto the front doorstep. "I'm not- Tell Larissa to leave Clay alone- What photos-?"

"Bye, little bro!" With a wicked smile, Giovanna slammed the door shut.

Jack blinked and waited for Raimundo to throw the door back open, but he never did. One by one, the giggling sisters darted into the kitchen after the other monks, and as the crowd thinned, Jack side-stepped toward the front door. His claustrophobia was honestly rather mild compared to some of his other fears, but his heart had been pounding and his palms had been sweating for several minutes; he needed air.

"Gonna go ask him about those love poems, huh?" asked Giovanna with a wink. "Have fun!"

Jack stepped outside, shut the door behind him, and took a few deep breaths. He felt better within seconds. He glanced up the road and spotted Raimundo following his mother out into town. Jack briefly contemplated joining them instead of returning to the crowd inside. Then again, he would hate to miss an opportunity to see embarrassing baby photos. Besides, maybe Raimundo wanted some time alone with his mom. Jack's memories of his own mother were faint, but there were a lot of things he would surrender to see her again-

Before Jack's train of thought could descend into an inner pity party, he noticed Raimundo stop in the road and pull his hood up. His mother kept walking as if she hadn't noticed he was behind her in the first place. Raimundo stood stock still for several seconds, and Jack raised an eyebrow at the sight, reminded inexplicably of a poorly functioning robot. He could barely see Raimundo's fingers twitching before the teen suddenly darted off the road and out of sight.

* * *

After the family joined the other monks in the kitchen, the room filled with chatter. Though Clay blushed furiously from Larissa's positive, undivided attention, and Kimiko pressed against the wall to avoid anyone entering her larger-than-average personal bubble, Omi clambered onto a seat at the dining table and gazed in slight awe around the room. He had never met such a big family before, much less such an energetic, happy one.

He had only heard Raimundo list his sisters' names once, but telling the difference between was not terribly difficult. Larissa, the youngest, wore the most feminine outfit and make-up, but her hands were specked in dried paint. Leticia had the longest hair, all wrapped up in an elegant braid. Estela wore a tank top that showed off biceps that Omi found quite impressive for a girl. Ana and Fernanda both flitted around the kitchen, offering food to their guests.

Giovanna, the oldest, hastily gathered her scattered pile of med school textbooks off the table and tossed them onto the first empty chair she could spot. She glanced back at the front door before she sat at the table and smiled at the Xiaolin monks. "So it sounds like Raimundo has been behaving himself?"

The chatter quieted down, Clay and Omi nodded politely, and Kimiko said, "Yeah, he's, uh… He keeps to himself a lot, so…" When she saw the smile on Giovanna's face drop a little, she hastily added, "I mean, he pretty much never gets in trouble or anything. That's usually Jack."

Leticia frowned at the Dragon of Fire. "You don't like him, do you?"

"What?" Kimiko squeaked. "No! I mean, yeah! He's, uh-"

"It's alright," Leticia said, shaking her head at the floor. "The kids at his school thought he was a creepy weirdo, too."

Fernanda and Ana scowled at her, and Giovanna's full eyebrows furrowed. "So he's not really making any friends, huh?"

"He has us for friends!" said Omi, waving his hand and leaning forward in his seat. "He is a most skilled warrior on the obstacle field, and he single-handedly retrieved the Sword of the Storm. Raimundo is a most valuable ally!"

Kimiko let out a breath and stepped back to stand partly behind Clay, eager for the spotlight to be elsewhere. A few of the younger sisters murmured and smiled at Omi, and Fernanda elbowed Ana in the ribs. "See? Raimundo's doing fine! _Mamãe_ and I told you this Xiaolin place would be good for him."

Giovanna's smile turned a little fixed. Nodding, she folded her hands in her lap and leaned toward Omi. "And he hasn't done anything… weird? Nothing that stands out?"

From Clay's shoulder, Dojo asked, "Like what?"

"Like, he hasn't… I mean…" Giovanna bit her lip for a moment. "Like, for example, you guys haven't found any dead animals lying around, have you?"

The temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees. Kimiko stepped back, bumping into Clay, and Dojo flinched into the cowboy's neck. Omi opened and closed his mouth, not comprehending the question. Then the room filled with yelling.

"Giovanna!"

" _Você não pode dizer isso—!"_

" _Nós precisamos saber_ —"

" _Eles vão pensar que ele é um louco_ —"

"Whoa, hold on there, partners!" Clay hollered while Kimiko and Dojo pressed against him, and when the sisters paused long enough to whirl at him, he said, "What're y'all sayin'? Does Raimundo—?"

"No," Fernanda said firmly, moving across the room and pressing her hands onto the table, putting herself between the monks and Giovanna. "There is nothing wrong with our little brother."

"Anymore," said Giovanna, "probably." Fernanda took in a swift breath that hissed through her nose.

Kimiko peeked at the two oldest sisters from behind Clay's arm. "That thing you said about… dead animals? What is that?"

"It's nothing," said Fernanda. "I don't know why she said that. Raimundo doesn't hurt animals."

"Anymore," Giovanna repeated. Quickly, she added, "You guys don't have any pets, right?" She ducked when Fernanda spun around and tried to slap her, and the room filled with noise again as the six sisters resumed shouting.

" _Pare de falar_!"

" _Você é embaraçoso_ —"

"Please!" Omi cried out. "Perhaps if you could merely explain, we would understand! I am certain you do not wish us to be frightened of Raimundo— we live with him! Perhaps knowing more about him could help!"

His voice seemed to break through to the two oldest siblings because though they continued to glare at each other, they stopped yelling. Giovanna opened her mouth to speak, but her sister silenced her with a fierce hand gesture and sat at the table. "Look," said Fernanda, "Raimundo went through some… phases… when he was a kid. That's all."

"Well—" Giovanna started, but she went quiet at the expression on Fernanda's face.

"He used to be a lot different," said Ana, and everyone in the room turned to face her. "Friendly, always pulling pranks on us, goofing off, smiling…"

"A total brat," said Giovanna with a fond smirk. To the monks' surprise, Fernanda smiled, too.

"Then we moved out here to Rio," said Ana, "and we were all kinda homesick, but that wasn't a big deal— Raimundo was pretty excited to live in a big city…"

"Until our father died," said Estela, eyes on the floor.

Kimiko's eyes widened. "I'm so sorry."

Estela shook her head dismissively, as if the statement was one she was tired of hearing. "Well, anyway, we think Papi's death hit Raimundo the hardest. That's why he's so…" She gestured vaguely in front of her.

"Of course it hit him the hardest," said Leticia, grip tightening on the book in her lap. "He was _there_."

"There?" said Omi blankly.

"With our dad," said Giovanna, frowning at her hands on the table. "He says he doesn't remember it, though."

"Raimundo was _with_ your papa when he died?" Kimiko's hand clasped over her mouth. "What happened?"

Giovanna's gaze darkened. " _Os Anjos da Morte_."

"Come again?" said Clay.

"It means 'The Angels of Death,'" said Fernanda with an eye roll. "It's not a real thing. It's just the name people gave to whatever happened that day."

"Papi and Raimundo went out for—I don't remember, some father-son bonding thing—" Giovanna pointed an inquisitive finger at the second-oldest sister. "Raimundo was… seven years old? Yeah. Because I was sixteen, and I'm nine years older than him—"

"The point is," said Fernanda, "the two of them went downtown, and next thing we know, all over the news: more than a hundred people downtown were dead."

Estela interrupted, "I heard it was a thousand."

"Yeah, I thought it was more than that," said Ana.

"We kept hearing all these different things," said Giovanna, not bothering to clarify the numbers. "The cops said it was a gas leak, some people said it was a gang, other people said it was the cops…"

"And none of those reasons make any sense." Fernanda ran her hands through her hair while she glared at the ceiling and started holding up fingers. "There weren't any explosions, none of the buildings were damaged, there weren't any bullets… there wasn't even any blood."

"I saw Papi," said Giovanna quietly. "Mamãe and I went out to find them, and… I saw him. On the pavement. He wasn't hurt. He looked _fine_." Her lips quivered for a second, and her gaze passed over her med school textbooks. "Maybe if I'd known then what I know now... maybe I could have figured out what happened to him."

"And what about Raimundo?" asked Omi, voice small.

"We couldn't find him." Giovanna's entire demeanor tensed. "We looked everywhere, we kept calling… We didn't know how he and Papi got separated, or if someone had taken him, and the police kept trying to make us leave…"

"You can't trust the cops." Estela's lips curled back into a hateful sneer. "They're hiding something about the whole thing. Everyone knows it. Freaking 'gas leak,' what a load of crap."

"It couldn't be the cops," said Ana, glancing at the younger sister. "Whoever did this, if someone did this, they'd be pure evil."

"Cops," said Estela, nodding.

Giovanna ignored her. "But then that night, we heard a little knock on the door, and… and there he was. Raimundo. He just… Right there, on our front doorstep. He had some scuffs on his shirt, and that stupid little bowtie Mamãe made him wear was all torn up, but…"

"He was alive." Fernanda frowned and rested her elbow on the table. "Sort of."

"Sort of?" Kimiko echoed, face paling a bit.

"He wouldn't talk for six months," said Ana. "He barely ate, and he quit playing with his friends at school, and… and we'd find these dead mice or lizards lying around the house, and we could never really prove it was him, but…"

Leticia said, "You know those horror movies, the ones with the creepy little kid who's possessed by the devil? He was like that."

Fernanda sat up straighter at the expressions on the monks' faces. "But he got better. He's fine now. He was a traumatized kid, and his trauma showed up in weird ways. He grew up, and now he's okay. Kinda quiet, kinda grumpy, but—" She scowled at Leticia, "—definitely not possessed by the devil."

* * *

The spasmodic twitching in Raimundo's limbs barely slowed him as he strolled between the alleyways. The streets grew dirtier, buildings becoming less sturdy and some even downright decrepit. Out of his pocket he pulled a torn sheet of notebook paper with nothing but an address written in his own rough handwriting, but he crumpled it in his hand. He already knew where he was going.

His eyes flashed across the face of very passerby while he walked. Too old. Too young. Too short. Wrong skin tone. No mustache. Bald. Neck tattoo. He didn't exactly expect to find his target through pure coincidence, but the only proof he had of the man's address was Wuya's word. For all he knew, hunting blind would give him better results.

Creeping deeper into the slums, Raimundo paused and clenched his fists until his limbs stopped quaking. The streets turned quiet, and he reached a building decorated with graffiti. He unfolded the piece of paper in his hand, studied it, and then stepped closer to the open window. His heart pounded in his ears, but when he peeked inside, the only contents in the room were dingy furniture. No weapons, no blood, and no sign of anything out of the ordinary. He supposed he should have expected as much.

At the sound of footsteps, he spun around to face a pale, unshaven, beefy-looking man, who said softly in Portuguese, " _Hey, kid, you look lost. You okay?_ "

Even while Raimundo recognized the face from an illusion Wuya had shown him months ago, his body moved with practiced muscle memory. His shoulders hunched, his spine curved to make himself look smaller, his eyes grew round, and he pulled the Mask of Rio closer to his chest. He whimpered, " _S-sir, my little sister ran away. I c-can't find her_."

The man stepped closer, eyes flashing in poorly concealed interest. " _Your sister? How old?_ "

" _She's five, sir. I think she's somewhere around here. Can you help me?_ "

" _Where are your parents?_ " The man glanced around to confirm what Raimundo already knew: the streets were empty, and no one was watching them.

Raimundo fiddled in place, stuffing the paper back into his pocket and replacing it with a pocketknife. Shifting his weight back and forth, he weakly shrugged. " _They don't know I'm here. They think we're both at school. I'm going to get in so much trouble if they find out!_ "

" _Don't worry, kid. It'll be our little secret._ " The man stepped way too close and put his arm around Raimundo, who caught a distinct whiff of stale sweat and something far more malignant. He let the man guide him toward a dark alleyway.

" _My name is Carlos,_ " said Raimundo. " _What's yours?_ "

The two stepped into the shadows, and the man answered with a smile, " _Julio_."

" _Really?_ " Raimundo slipped the Mask of Rio onto his face and silently pulled out the blade of his pocketknife. " _Because you look like Romeo Carvalho, that guy on the news who's wanted for kidnapping and killing five children._ " When the man stopped walking and gripped his shoulder tighter, Raimundo added, " _The news anchor talked way more about some drug war you're in, but I didn't care much about that._ "

" _You're—_ "

Raimundo swung his arm back and stabbed the knife into Romeo's hand. With a startled wheeze, Romeo lurched away from him, and Raimundo muttered, "Mask of Rio." He spun, backed into the wall, and watched Romeo's eyes bulge in his skull.

" _Where did you-?_ "

Romeo stumbled around, but Raimundo remained still, and the Shen Gong Wu blended him into his surroundings perfectly. Romeo couldn't see him; the bug-eyed panic in his eyes was almost comical. Raimundo kicked a beer bottle across the alley, and as Romeo turned to watch it roll, Raimundo pounced onto his back and yanked at his head. The knife sliced across Romeo's neck, and red spattered the alley.

Romeo's yell dissolved into a gurgle when he dropped. Raimundo managed to land on his feet, only stumbling a bit from the momentum of the fall. Careful to avoid stepping in blood, he turned and crept back to the man. He bent low to watch Romeo's eyes dilate. He kept the knife pointed at the body until all the muscles loosened and the jaw's skin started to sag.

With a quiet huff, Raimundo straightened his back and tried to study his hand. He could feel something hot and wet on his fingers, but the Mask of Rio was working like a charm, even to his own eyes. He would have to find a way to wash off the blood without someone spotting him, but he doubted he would have any trouble. Even without a magic Shen Gong Wu to turn himself invisible, he had never been caught before.

He heard a scuffling sound above him, and he looked up. Quivering on the roof overhead, completely covered in brown monkey fur, and with his heat vision goggles pointed right at him, Jack Spicer crouched with his mouth hanging open in terror.


	14. Chapter 14

The next few seconds or minutes passed by Jack Spicer in a yellow-tinted blur. One moment, he stared down into an alley where Raimundo held a bloody knife over a corpse that still twitched. The next, Jack's legs and arms burned under him while he fled, dashing across dozens of unfamiliar rooftops and screeching at the top of his lungs.

The panic in his veins and the magic in his Wu muddied his brain. He didn't know where he was. He didn't care where he was going. Clutching the Monkey Staff, he ran on all fours, and soon he was panting too hard to scream. Missing a jump, he stumbled over the edge of a roof. He collided with a dumpster and rolled down a set of stone stairs into another deserted alley. The Monkey Staff fell out of his hands and clattered against a pair of metal trash cans.

For a second, Jack's human hands scrabbled against the uneven stone pavement. His goggles pressed into the ground, he gulped for air, and he struggled to process exactly how he'd gotten here. He remembered following Raimundo; he had wanted to find out if he could successfully sneak up on his vigilant teammate. He had watched Raimundo pause at some random house and talk to some fat guy in Portuguese. They had ducked into a dark alley, Jack had watched from above, and then- and then-

"Jack?"

With a strangled gasp, Jack scrambled to his feet, yanked the goggles off his eyes, and spun around. Raimundo stood at the stone stairs, breathing hard and holding the Mask of Rio loosely in one hand. The knife was gone, but his empty hand still had blood on it. Raimundo licked his lips and took a step closer. "Jack-"

"No!" Stumbling back, Jack bumped into the silver trash cans. Grabbing a lid, he threw it at Raimundo and yelled, "METAL!" The disc flew across the alley, and to Jack's utter shock, Raimundo barely had time to widen his eyes before it collided with his skull with a clang. Raimundo dropped, and the Mask of Rio bounced down the stairs.

Jack's legs quaked while he grabbed another silver lid, shielded his body with it, and took a half step toward the Shen Gong Wu. When Raimundo groaned and clutched at his head, Jack somehow found the nerves to speak. "W-what- What- What was that?" Leaning his body against the graffiti-coated brick wall, he managed to nudge at the Mask of Rio with his foot. Fingers clenching and releasing in front of his chest, he glared at Raimundo and stuttered, "What _was_ that? Why d-did you-? Who _was_ that guy?"

Raimundo gingerly sat up and rested a forearm on his knees. Matching Jack's glower with his own, he said, "He was a bad guy."

Jack waited for clarification, and when none came, he echoed, "A bad guy."

"Yeah, Jack. A bad guy, the kind of evil we mighty Xiaolin Warriors are supposed to be fighting. He killed a bunch of people, and then he moved out here, just a couple blocks away from my family. Wuya told me-"

"Wuya?" Jack yelped. "You're still working for Wuya? I thought you dumped her!" He swallowed the bile in his throat. "She ordered you to k-kill some random-?"

Raimundo slammed his fist onto his knee. "You're not listening, Jack! Wuya didn't tell me to do anything; I told _her_ to find him!"

Jack gripped at his own shirt and leaned back into the wall. "You... what?"

Raimundo sighed. "Back when we were starting out with this whole Shen Gong Wu thing, Wuya must have seen..." Revealing a bruise blossoming on his head where the lid had struck him, he ran his red-stained hand through his hair. "Look, I didn't just find the Sword of the Storm. I had to take it from some Tubbimurra guy. He was being a pain in the butt about it, so I took his ninja sword and sliced him up."

If possible, Jack's face turned even paler. "Sliced...?"

"He was fine," Raimundo said with a roll of his eyes. "I don't kill random dudes who're just annoying. He waddled off to the hospital, whatever. I got the Sword. But I guess Wuya saw what I did, and I guess it impressed her or something. She came to me one night when you were all sleeping, and she tried to make me join the Heylin side. I told her to shove it. But she kept talking, and..." He shrugged. "We made a deal."

The trash can lid shielding Jack started to rattle. He gritted his teeth and forced his hands to still. "What kind of deal?"

"Info for Wu. I got her a bunch of Shen Gong Wu she wanted, and in exchange, she lurked around in Rio and watched for anyone dangerous who got too close to my family." Raimundo sneered and shook his head. "I knew I couldn't trust her, so I had her watching half a dozen districts. Rio has six million people in it; that's a lot of Pedrosas scattered around. She had no idea which ones were mine."

Jack stayed pressed against the wall while he tried to piece all this information together into something sensible. Distant sounds of the city echoed over the thin, poorly lit alleyway, almost as loud as the blood pounding in his ears. The moments trickled by, and Raimundo stared at him silently, barely blinking.

Fingers still twitching, Jack finally managed to say, "So. You knew you couldn't trust her, but then she told you that this random guy was dangerous, and you just believed her?"

Raimundo's eyes narrowed, and his nose wrinkled. "I'm not stupid, Jack-"

Jack pushed himself off the wall and let his empty hand flail in front of him. "And not only- haha- not only did you believe her, but you decided, 'Hey, better go straight to murder. That's the smart thing to do!'"

" _Yes_ , Jack. That _is_ the smart thing to do." Raimundo pressed his palms to his knees and stood. "I don't know what Chase and Fung taught you about being a Xiaolin Warrior or whatever, but you can't just walk up to an evil person and ask them nicely to stop. You can't just beat them up a little and hope they learned a lesson. Leaving the enemy alive just gives them the chance to strike back." Clenching his fist for emphasis, he hissed, "When your home is infested with roaches, the only way to get rid of them is to exterminate them."

His words hung in the air like a dozen detached cobwebs. Jack took a step back and asked, "Have you... done this before?" Raimundo only stared at him in silence, still not blinking. Jack grabbed at his own hair and yanked. "You can't- People aren't roaches, Raimundo! That guy, he probably had family—"

"So what?" Raimundo said, voice finally rising. "The people he hurt had families! I have family, and I'll do whatever it takes to protect them!"

Out of all the noises Jack expected to fall out of his mouth, a sudden bark of laughter was not one of them, and yet fall it did. Breathing hard, he paced in a small circle before whirling back at his teammate. "And here I thought Omi had a massive ego!" In a surge of either immense bravery or astounding stupidity, he marched over and jabbed a finger right into Raimundo's chest. "You don't get to decide all by yourself who deserves to live and die! You're not that special!"

Every visible muscle in Raimundo's body tensed. With a vicious scowl, he grabbed Jack's hand and flung it away from himself. "So, what? Am I supposed to just let them live? Let them walk around my home and kill my friends and family because killing is wrong?!" He pushed Jack, who stumbled backward. "I don't know what kind of rich-boy life you got before you came to the temple, but whatever it was, it was better than mine. You have no idea what it's like, fearing for your life every day when you're that young. To lie awake at night wondering if your sisters and brothers and aunts and uncles will come home in a body bag, just like your dad did."

As Jack swayed to maintain his balance, he was silent. He looked up at Raimundo, trying to recognize his teammate in eyes as cold as jade. For just a moment, his own resolve wavered. "You know what? You're right. I don't know! I _don't_ know." Wiping cold sweat off his face, he babbled, "I don't know whether all this is wrong or right or who can decide that. People kill each other all the time. They get hired to go across countries and kill lots of people and are called war heroes, and cops kill people without even getting fired, and what makes them better judges than we are? I don't know! I don't!"

His fingernails dragged across his scalp. The metal trash cans behind him rattled, seemingly of their own accord, but he barely noticed. He could only glare at Raimundo, who was scarcely a teenager, only a year older than Jack and maybe half an inch shorter. With a deep breath that shook in his lungs, Jack said, "But you, Beta Brawn? That's not your call, either! Just because you're a Chosen One doesn't mean you get to run around stabbing anyone who looks at you funny!"

Raimundo scowled. "I already told you, Jack: I don't hurt people just for being annoying. I only hurt people who really deserve it."

"How do you know that they deserve it? You just trusted Wuya to pick someone out; how do you know she wouldn't lie to you?" Jack threw his arms up and gestured outward. "In fact, what would you have done if Wuya hadn't found anyone? What if she had floated all around the neighborhood and never found a single person who 'deserved it'? What if you kept bringing her Wu, and she just said, 'Sorry, no serial killers in that district...'?"

Raimundo snapped, "Then I'd know she's not doing her part of the deal, and I-" The heat in his words abruptly evaporated, and the rest trailed out, "I... I would have made her... look again..." He blinked a few times, and his gaze ducked down as he processed what he had just said.

Emitting another noise that might have been some sort of terrified laughter, Jack snapped his fingers and pointed at him. "So her part of the deal wasn't about protecting your family, was it? You wouldn't have been happy enough to see all your brothers and sisters safe, oh no. You would have made her keep looking until she gave you a target." Raimundo took a step back, and Jack stepped forward to follow him. "You didn't want Wuya to protect your family; you wanted her to find someone for you to kill."

Jack had never seen color drain from someone's face as fast as it left Raimundo's, leaving nothing behind but the multicolored bruise on his forehead. The teen's feet scuffled beneath him, and he wobbled as if Jack has punched him. "No. No, that's not... It's not like that!" Breaking eye contact, Raimundo paced back and forth across the thin alleyway, stuttering, "I'm getting rid of- I'm doing this to help people! I'm d-doing the right thing. I..." Voice loud and manic, he whirled at Jack and shouted, "I _have_ to be doing the right thing!"

Like a ship losing the wind in its sails, Raimundo deflated and sank to the ground. Jack's fingernails ground against the edges of his metal lid. Watching the other teen shake like a dead leaf at his feet, Jack's fear and anger dulled into something almost like pity. He took a cautious step and mumbled, "Y'know, most people who want to help others just... donate to charity or something. Why did you...? How did this even start?"

Gulping for air, Raimundo screwed his eyes shut. "When I was a kid, _Os Anjos Da Mortes_ hit the city, and I lost my dad. I don't... I don't really remember it. My sisters said that crime and stuff went way up after that; no one knew what happened, and it got everyone scared. I don't remember much of that, either." His eyes opened, and he stared off into space. "But then a few months later, there was this one guy hanging around near the schools. He kept attacking people, stealing their money, and the cops couldn't find him. Or maybe they didn't care, I dunno. But then Leticia got mugged, and sh-she had all these bruises..." His hands dug through his hair like he wanted to yank it out. Through his teeth, he hissed, "She reported him and everything. Nothing changed. My sisters didn't know what to do, and one day I was hanging around at the train tracks, and he came after me because I was an easy target or something, and I fought him. He had a knife and I pushed him a-and..." He took a gulping breath and looked up at Jack. "There was a train coming."

Jack's mouth felt stuck in a permanent grimace. Letting the trash can lid hang loose at his side, he slumped his shoulders and said, "But. That was an accident. Right?"

"An accident," Raimundo echoed with a nod. "But no one got mugged anymore." When Jack didn't respond, his eyes got rounder, and Jack couldn't remember when he had last blinked. Pitch rising in his voice, Raimundo said, "I did that. I fought the bad guy, and I got rid of him. The neighborhood was safe again because of me. No one suspected any foul play, either; eight-year-olds aren't exactly prime murder suspects."

"Eight?" Jack squeaked. "You were eight? That's not- There are eight-year-olds out there still wetting their beds- n-not that I was one of them-" He let the lid drop to the ground, and he wiped the sweat off his face with both palms. "You were just a little kid! Didn't that mess you up?"

Raimundo's frantic expression turned oddly blank. "I survived _Os Anjos Da Mortes_ ; I was already messed up." His gaze drifted away from Jack. "Ask any of my old classmates. They all thought I was a freak. So, y'know. Not much sanity to lose, I guess." His fingers absentmindedly started doodling in the dirt between his feet. "Things got easier. The next time some creep got too close, I snuck into his car and messed with his brake lines. I thought it'd just send him to the hospital or something, but there was a steep hill and... Well. No more headlines about missing women after that."

Shaking his head, Jack wrapped his arms around his stomach. "This is..." His voice died before he could say the word "wrong." His own moral code had never been as rigid as Omi's, and Master Monk Chase had taught him that Xiaolin Warriors existed to protect the world from evil. Wasn't that exactly what Raimundo was doing? For centuries, the Chosen Ones of the past were allowed and even encouraged to meet violence with violence. Even if the elderly monks in the temple were pacifists, the Xiaolin Dragons among them were not. Could it be possible that Raimundo really was doing the right thing?

Jack looked down at his friend. Raimundo was still pale, and the blood on his fingers had dried to a crusty brown. His sweaty hair stuck up in weird angles. The bruise on his head was turning a sickly mix of blue and purple, matched only by the dark circles under his eyes. Jack finally said, "But what about you?"

Raimundo blinked. "What about me?"

"Do you like doing this? Do you like killing people?"

Raimundo blinked again, and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Who cares how I feel about it?"

"I do!" Jack gulped, and his voice raised an octave, "You're my teammate. You're my f-friend, a-a-and I don't want you to keep doing this! Whether it's right or wrong or heroic or barbaric or whatever, this isn't normal for _you_!" He instinctively reached out to put his hands on Raimundo's shoulders, but he shuddered and pulled back at the last second.

Raimundo winced at the movement, and he bowed his head. "I wish you hadn't followed me, Jack. You weren't supposed to ever find out. I liked having you as a friend."

Absurdly, Jack's mouth curled into a pout. "I'm still your friend."

"After what you just saw? Not likely." Raimundo snorted, heaved himself up, and gave Jack a half-hearted smile. "What are you going to tell the others when you go back?"

For just a second, an icy block of fear dropped into Jack's gut. _Snitches get stitches._ Against his will, he had become a massive liability to someone who just admitted to murdering at least three adult men. Not a single person had entered the alleyway during their entire argument. If Raimundo turned on him now, not only would he be swiftly outmatched, but there would be no witnesses.

Raimundo's smile dropped, and the green glass of his eyes cracked. "Are you going to tell my family?"

"N-no." Jack's teeth scraped against his bottom lip, but then he gasped and added, "Actually!" His hand jerked out in front of him, palm sideways and fingers straight like a businessman bracing for a handshake. "You like deals, Beta Brawn. Let's make one: you turn a new leaf over. You stop being a-a vigilante, or whatever you call yourself, and you never ever listen to Wuya again. Don't ever hurt me or any of the other Xiaolin monks or anyone else I care about, no matter how much I tick you off-"

Raimundo had the gall to look wounded. "I'm not going to hurt you, Jack-"

"A-and you have to try to be the best, most noble Xiaolin Warrior you can be." Jack squared his shoulders, attempting to mimic the long distant memories of his entrepreneurial father. "Do all that, and I'll never tell anyone anything. My lips will be sealed."

Raising an eyebrow, Raimundo tentatively reached out a hand and paused. "Just like that? You sure?"

Jack's smile was fixed when he bobbed his head in a nod. "Mm-hmm! It'll be like today never even happened." Before Jack could really listen to the little voice in his head telling him that this solution was no better than slapping a cheap coat of paint over an ancient wall of mold, Raimundo reached out and closed the gap between their hands.

"Deal."


	15. Chapter 15

The flight back from Rio was oddly quiet. After what the Pedrosa sisters had told them, Kimiko had expected as much from Omi, Clay, and Dojo, but Jack was weirdly silent, too. He sat stiffly on Dojo's back with a weird green tint to his face, wringing his hands and tugging at his sleeves like he'd recently done something especially stupid. At least Raimundo was his usual surly self.

When the group touched down at the temple, Omi perked up at the sight of a familiar monk chatting with Master Monk Chase at the porch. "Master Fung!" Eyes alight, he jumped from the dragon and ran to his teacher. Master Fung glanced at the group and set down his tea cup. Master Monk Chase stepped out of the way in time for Omi to pounce on Master Fung and wrap his arms around his waist. "Master Fung, you have returned from your journey! I am so pleased to see you are well! I have so much to tell you!"

"Thank you, Omi," said Master Fung, gently prying the boy off of his body, "but I am afraid I have not returned just yet. I am merely passing through."

Undeterred, Omi bounced on the soles of his feet while the other Xiaolin Dragons strolled to them. Dojo, with the subtlety of a walrus, climbed up Master Fung's shoulder and asked, "So did you hide the you-know-whats at the you-know-where?"

Master Monk Chase scowled at the dragon, but Master Fung merely gave a placid sigh and answered, "I certainly did, Dojo, and now that the deed is done, the secrecy is no longer necessary." To the young monks, he said, "I hid the Moby Morpher and the Yang Yoyo in a location far from here. Master Chase and I agreed that it was the best way to guarantee they stayed out of Heylin hands. I plan to do the same with the Heart of Jong."

Resting a hand on her hip, Kimiko frowned and said, "But I thought protecting the Shen Gong Wu was our job. Shouldn't they be here?" Eyes flashing to Master Chase, she furrowed her brows. "Do you not trust us or something?"

Master Monk Chase's eyebrows lifted. "I assure you, Kimiko, I trust the five of you completely." Expression darkening, he clarified, "However, until we know the whereabouts of Hannibal Bean or Wuya, I believe the best course of action is to keep our most dangerous Shen Gong Wu as far from them as possible. That is why I am leaving them under Master Fung's care."

"No offense meant to you, Master Fung, sir," said Clay, "but if we're tryin' to keep the Wu safe, wouldn't the five of us be a better match against these Heylin varmints than uh... just one o' you?"

"Yeah," said Kimiko, "and how are we supposed to prove ourselves as Xiaolin Apprentices if you never give us a chance?" She glanced at the other boys, waiting for someone other than Clay to back her up. However, Omi kept his gaze downward and his hands folded in his sleeves, unwilling to argue with either of his teachers. Raimundo and Jack were both staring off into space in different directions as if they had something else on their minds.

Master Monk Chase smiled kindly and said, "I assure you, Kimiko, you will all have your chance. The Heylin side is not known for its patience. In time, they will make their move, and I will ensure you are ready for them."

* * *

To Omi's disappointment and despite Kimiko's protest, Master Fung left the temple with the Heart of Jong by the next morning. The following days were more or less the same as usual: chores, training, and waiting for another Shen Gong Wu. Jack was weirdly withdrawn, practically living in his underground lair to avoid the other monks, but Kimiko figured he was busy crafting some new robot. More importantly, Clay had rejoined the team, and he was eager to catch up on all the lessons he had missed.

Unfortunately, Clay's return also meant the return of his bear-like snoring, which is why Kimiko found herself perched on one of the temple roofs alone one night, texting Keiko and brainstorming ways to get promoted to Xiaolin Apprentice. The Tangle Web Comb sat in her messy ponytail; if Jack could get away with hoarding Shen Gong Wu, why couldn't she?

"Bit past your bedtime, isn't it, kiddo?"

Kimiko glanced up from the glowing blue screen of her phone while Dojo slithered up the porch column to join her on the roof. He crossed his little arms and shook his head. "Kids these days with their fancy tech gadgets."

"I couldn't sleep," she muttered, but she let her phone flip closed. Drumming her fingers on her knees while Dojo slithered to her side, she bowed her head a bit and said, "I don't get it. We've been training for almost a year, we found all these Wu, we fought one bad guy one time, our Wu went missing and came back, and... I don't know. I feel like I haven't done anything useful since I came here."

"Hmm." Dojo pulled a little pair of reading glasses out of seemingly nowhere and placed them on his nose. "And how does that make you feel?"

Kimiko flushed at the transparent attempt at basic armchair therapy, but she shrugged and answered honestly, "I dunno, frustrated? I thought we were going to be doing something more important, I guess. Master Fung called us 'Chosen Ones,' but are we really the only people who can play a scavenger hunt that the bad guys aren't even playing?"

"The balance of good and evil can play out in strange ways," said Dojo with a sage nod. "But believe me, you're not wasting your time. There are, uh, a few events coming up that you kids will probably have to deal with, but I don't think the Chase-man wants me telling you..."

Kimiko raised her eyebrows at him. "Like what?"

With a wince, Dojo mumbled, "Me and my big magical mouth." Gazing up at the stars, he answered louder, "Well, the passing of the Heylin Comet is due any year now, and that can get pretty messy. The Year of the Green Monkey is coming up, too; Jack ought to have fun with that one. And uh, I might have an ailment where I grow a second head sometimes..."

Before Kimiko could cautiously request clarification on that last one, the two of them heard an odd series of thuds a few buildings down. Kimiko stood, and Dojo asked, "Hey, did you hear that? It sounded near the vault-"

Kimiko grabbed the little dragon and took off running. She jumped from roof to roof, and she stumbled once- apparently Omi made it look easier than it was- but it wasn't long before she sprang to the front door to the vault, which stood wide open. Eyes wide, she crept to the door with her fists raised, and she gasped when she stepped inside.

Half a dozen men in black and white suits stared back at her, standing in a cluster around the open vault. In the center of the crowd, a large man wearing a double-breasted jacket turned to face her. His voice was deep and gravelly when he said, "And who do we have here?"

Whatever cool one-liner Kimiko could have said otherwise dropped in her throat when she caught sight of the man's absolutely hideous hairstyle. She pointed weakly and blurted out, "What's with the tacky double man buns?"

"Well, well, well," hissed a raspier voice. A purple, hazy creature rose up from behind the man-bun man, bearing a mask that grinned in delight. "If it isn't little Kimiko, the Dragon of Fire. I've heard plenty about you, young lady."

"Wuya?" gasped Dojo from Kimiko's ankles.

The man-bun man pointed at Kimiko and asked, "Is she a threat?"

"Alone? Hardly," said Wuya with a snicker.

"Excuse me?" Kimiko gritted her teeth and struck a battle pose. "Who are all of you, and what are you doing in our vault? You have ten seconds to answer and get out!"

The suited henchmen all crouched in defensive poses, but the man-bun man gestured for them to stay still. Stretching to his full height, he said, "I'm surprised you've never heard of me, little Dragon. I am Pandabubba, the most dangerous criminal in Hong Kong. Aren't you supposed to be a bit more aware of your enemies?"

Kimiko's gaze flickered to the ghost for a brief second. "And where does Wuya fit into all that?"

"She and I met when I purchased her puzzle box at a Hong Kong underworld auction." Pandabubba chuckled and shook his head. "She attempted to sway me with talk about Shen Gong Wu, but I found her aspirations of world takeover to be a bit too... lofty. I hired Tubbimurra to follow her, and when that mission failed, I sent her on her way."

"Sent me away?" Wuya hissed at him. "More like I found your petty criminal mischief to be mere child's play. I found a better minion and left." Mask grinning wider, she turned back to Kimiko. "You should ask Raimundo how that went."

"Raimundo?" asked Kimiko blankly, almost thrown off guard.

"It must not have gone well," said Pandabubba, sneering at the ghost, "because Wuya eventually came crawling back to me. Tonight, after we came to a mutual agreement, she led me here."

Wuya huffed and crossed two purple tendrils that were probably her arms. "I decided that I would rather the Shen Gong Wu be in anyone's evil hands, even ones as unambitious as yours, Pandabubba."

"They're not going into anyone's evil hands," snapped Kimiko, "and your ten seconds are up!" She sprang into the air and yelled, "FIRE!" She flipped forward and landed a kick on the nearest bodyguard, slamming him back into another. When she hit the ground, she spun, kicked a third guard in the gut, and jumped out of the way before the men could dogpile her. Pressing her back into the wall, she yanked her Shen Gong Wu out of her hair. "Tangle Web Comb!" A mass of tendrils shot out of the comb and latched onto the nearest guard, sending him toppling.

"Pathetic!" Wuya called. "Your minions are getting tossed around like paper wads by a lone pre-apprentice!"

Casually stepping into the vault, Pandabubba said, "Not for long."

When Kimiko spotted his movement, she shouted, "Stay out of there! Tangle Web Comb!" The tendrils shot out again, but this time they missed their target and sailed over Pandabubba's head as he ducked into the vault. Distracted, Kimiko didn't spot one of the guards approaching her left side until he pounced, nearly knocking her to the ground and trying to yank her arms behind her head. Grating her teeth together, Kimiko twisted her wrist to point her Shen Gong Wu at the bodyguard. "Tangle Web Comb!"

A smaller set of tendrils jumped out this time, latching only around the guard's arm. It was enough for Kimiko to kick him away, but two more guards landed at her feet and gripped her ankles. With an angry shriek, she dropped back onto her butt and shouted once more, "Tangle Web Comb!" As she spoke, a third man grabbed her by the waist, and a fourth snatched her other arm. The comb's tendrils oozed out like toothpaste from a tube, and they swirled around in the air, unsure where to land.

"Let go of me!" Kimiko kicked and flailed, but all six bodyguards had her pinned. With angry, wet heat in her eyes, she stared up at the Tangle Web Comb in her only free limb, pointing directly at the glass ceiling while its tendrils swayed. Outside her field of vision, she heard the thumps of Pandabubba down in the vault staircase, and she screamed, "TANGLE WEB COMB!"

The tendrils twitched once, and then they dropped down. Knocking all six bodyguards out of its way, they wrapped around Kimiko, encasing her from jaw to ankles. With a muffled yell, Kimiko fell.

The henchmen gathered around her and stared down, and one stupidly asked another, "Did we win?" Kimiko glared up at them with all the daggers she could muster, but she was completely helpless, and she knew it. One of the men finally bent down, grabbed her hair near the scalp, and pulled her up to a sitting position. He called out, "We taking her with us, boss?"

Kimiko couldn't even twist her head to see Pandabubba when he stepped out of the vault, but she heard the metallic clinking of the Shen Gong Wu, along with his answer, "I have no need for a squealing little half-pint. I got what I came for."

The henchman dropped Kimiko, and her head hit the stone floor. She writhed and tried to shout through the ropes, but the villains strolled around her and out the door, leaving her completely alone in the empty vault.


	16. Chapter 16

What couldn't have been more than three minutes passed by like hours while Kimiko thrashed on the vault floor. Wuya's cackles faded away to nothing, and Kimiko thought she might have heard the sound of a car speeding away. At the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching the vault, she tried to roll upright but was unable to move until Clay reached her side and crouched next to her. "You alright, lil lady?"

He cautiously tapped at the tendrils of the Tangle Web Comb, and they immediately retreated back into the Shen Gong Wu. Clay picked up the comb while Kimiko kicked, scrambled to her feet, and snapped, "Do I look alright to you?"

From the doorway, Raimundo and Jack peered around the room, and Omi trotted to the edge of the vault and asked, "What happened? Dojo woke us up and said Wuya was here-"

Raimundo and Jack exchanged some odd expressions, but Kimiko was too embarrassed to take note of it. While Clay helped her upright, Dojo peered around the room from near Raimundo's ankles and grimaced. "Did you, uh, send them packing, Kimiko?"

She crossed her arms and glared at the floor. The three older boys awkwardly shuffled in place at the lack of an answer, but Omi bolted down the stairs. To the tune of drawers opening and Omi's increasingly frantic sounds of dismay, Clay rested a hand on Kimiko's shoulder and asked, "Are ya hurt?"

Kimiko shrugged off his hand. "I'm fine." Desperate for their attention to be elsewhere, she spun around and pointed at Raimundo. "Sh-she said something weird about you!"

"Me?" Raimundo stared blankly at her. "What about me?"

"She said-" Kimiko gritted her teeth while she struggled to remember Wuya's exact wording through her fog of anger and shame. "She said she went looking for minions, and that you would know something about it, and I should ask you."

Jack made an odd noise and clapped a hand over his mouth, but Raimundo just furrowed his brows and shrugged. "I, uh. Okay? I don't even know what this chick looks like, so why would I know anything?"

Face turning pink, Kimiko flailed her hands. "She's some weird floating ghost thing. She's purple, and her face is a mask..."

"A ghost?" Raimundo looked even more confused at this point. "Kimiko, ghosts aren't real."

"I saw her!" Kimiko snapped. "I'm not stupid, Raimundo!"

Tiny rapid footsteps interrupted their argument when Omi ran back up the stairs and wailed, "All of the Shen Gong Wu are gone! Every single one of them! My lucky Sword of the Storm is gone!" He whirled at Kimiko. "What happened? Did she have an army? What powers did she use?"

Avoiding eye contact, Kimiko started pacing around the room. "She's a ghost, so she couldn't do anything. She had a bunch of goons with her and some guy named Pandabubba-"

"Did they have their own Shen Gong Wu?" asked Omi. "Did Wuya harness her ancient sorcery? How did she defeat you? Did she outsmart you?"

"No!"

"Did she trick you?"

"No!"

Face even redder than Kimiko's, Omi snapped, "Then how did she manage to take every single one of our Shen Gong Wu while you accomplished nothing? Why did you not retreat and fetch us to assist you?"

"Just drop it, Omi!" Kimiko shouted. "I thought I could handle it, okay?"

"Clearly, you were incorrect!" Omi yelled back.

Before the two could actually lunge at each other, Clay stepped in and lifted Omi up by the back of his shirt. "Hold on there, lil partner, there's no need to talk to the lil lady like that. It ain't her fault we were sleepin' on the job. She did her best, and she was all by herself. I reckon you owe her an apology."

Quivering, Omi glared at Kimiko, but he took a deep breath after Clay spoke. In the tense silence, during which Jack and Raimundo continued to stand aside and keep their opinions to themselves, Omi dragged his fingers down his cheeks and finally said slowly, "You are correct, Clay. It is not fair for me to lash out in anger like this." When Clay set him back down, he straightened his back and folded his hands in front of him. "It is our own fault for not being at Kimiko's side when she needed us. I should not be so surprised that she failed to guard the temple; she is just a girl, after all."

Kimiko bared her teeth and hissed, "Excuse me?"

"Do not worry, Kimiko!" said Omi, raising up his palms in appeasement. "I apologize for misjudging your capabilities. I will have a discussion with Master Monk Chase to ensure that you have a boy at your side more frequently to guarantee your safety."

"What?!"

"This ain't really the apology I was gunnin' for, lil partner," muttered Clay, scratching his head.

"I don't need bodyguards, Omi!" shouted Kimiko. "I can handle things just fine on my own!"

Omi pursed his lips, glanced at the empty vault, and brought his gaze back up to her. "I did read that girls tend to be more emotional than factual..."

While Kimiko briefly considered the repercussions of strangling a nine-year-old, Jack cleared his throat and finally spoke up. "Hey, um. Just to change the subject, y'know. If it matters to anyone, not all our Shen Gong Wu were stolen. I, uh. I might still have the Monkey Staff in my lair. For, uh. Emergencies like this?"

Dojo and the other four students spun their heads to stare at him. Omi's mouth dropped open, and then a delighted laugh escaped him. "Excellent, Jack Spicer! I cannot believe I need to thank you for ignoring Master Monk Chase's orders. Your disobedience has actually become useful!"

Clay held up the comb and added, "Looks like Kimiko managed to hold onto the Tangle Web Comb, too."

Omi's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "Oh. That is good, too!" He beamed up at Kimiko. "Take heart, Kimiko; you are not a complete failure!"

Kimiko couldn't even bring herself to mutter a thanks when Clay dropped the Tangle Web Comb into her open palm, nor could she find any relief that they still had the one Shen Gong Wu that had let her down so badly.

* * *

After waking up to an extremely odd conversation with Omi involving Kimiko and "constant male supervision," Master Monk Chase finally managed to pull an accurate recount of the previous night's events from Dojo. He had planned a reassuring speech of sorts by the time he arrived in the kitchen to join the young monks for breakfast, but the tension in the air was thick enough for even the Sword of the Storm to cut through. Kimiko's food sat untouched while she glared at the screen of one of her strange little tech devices, tapping at its buttons, drumming her foot under the table, and ignoring everyone in the room. Unlike the four boys, she did not acknowledge Chase's entrance.

"Master Monk Chase!" said Omi, standing up on his chair. "I did not have time to finish explaining Kimiko's need for assistance; Clay and Dojo pulled me out of your room too swiftly-"

"I understood your thoughts quite clearly, young monk," said Chase, standing near the head of the table and folding his hands in front of him. "This setback is disheartening, but it is not the end of the world. Wuya did not manage to get her hands on the Heart of Jong, the Shen Gong Wu she wanted most. As you remember, Master Fung hid it away in the other temple." He considered admitting his opinion that the Shen Gong Wu were overrated anyway, but he concluded the thought wasn't important.

"Is there a way we can get the Wu back?" asked Raimundo. "Wuya and this Pandabubba guy, they stole from us. We can steal them back. It's fair game, right?"

"Perhaps," said Chase. "I have heard of Pandabubba, and I know his whereabouts are within the city of Hong Kong. However, he has never meddled in Xiaolin or Heylin affairs before; his crimes barely exceeded past petty theft. He has kept such a low profile, no one knows where his headquarters is." He glanced aside at Kimiko, who continued to ignore him, and he frowned.

"Is he dangerous?" asked Raimundo. "Like, does he kill people?"

"Not to my knowledge," said Chase, raising an eyebrow while Kimiko pulled a second device and a handful of tangled wires out of her pocket. Pursing her lips, she plugged the two gadgets together and resumed tapping at the buttons. Trying to keep his voice neutral and patient, he asked, "Kimiko, would you like to join us?"

"I'm listening," she muttered, eyes never leaving the screens.

Clay set down his chopsticks and leaned back in his chair. "This is the second time someone has stolen Shen Gong Wu outta the vault, right? I reckon we need a better place to keep 'em, or what're we gonna do when more Wu reveal themselves?"

From Chase's shoulder, Dojo nodded and said, "I'm telling you, we need a padlock!"

"I'm pretty much done with my newest batch of Jackbots," Jack piped up. "I can program them to guard the vault! I figure we can't take them with us on Wu hunts anyway; none of my bots can keep up with Dojo."

"Excellent idea!" said Omi. "Your Jackbots already proved their competence when they defeated Warlord Guan and drove him from the vault!"

After a tellingly pregnant pause, Jack's eyebrows flew up. "Right! Yep. Yeah. They sure did do that!"

Chase felt no need to address Jack's hesitation, not when Kimiko continued to play with her contraptions and refuse to participate in the others' conversation. Repressing a scowl, he raised his chin and said, "Kimiko, perhaps your Goo Zombies game can wait for another time."

"This is my PDA," Kimiko said to her screen. "Goo Zombies is on the GameKid."

"Nonetheless," said Chase through his teeth, "I value the input of all my students, and I expect their full attention in return."

"Gimme, like, sixty more seconds," said Kimiko.

Omi rested an elbow on the table and gave Kimiko a disdainful side-eye. "I did not read anything in my guide about girls being exceptionally rude. Perhaps that is just a personality trait of yours." Kimiko tapped another few buttons and didn't respond.

Clay cleared his throat. "Listen, it's good that we got a new plan for the vault an' all, but there ain't any point in shuttin' the barn door after the horses get out."

Raimundo stared at him. "What?"

"He means there is no reason to protect the vault if there is nothing inside to protect," said Omi. "We must devise a plan to take back the Shen Gong Wu that are rightfully ours. Dojo, perhaps you can track them?"

Dojo's tail tapped against Chase's back while he drummed his little claws against his chin. "Ehhh... No guarantees on that one, kid. Freshly activated Shen Gong Wu are easy to track, but old ones? All that magic energy has dissipated or retreated into the Shen Gong Wu itself, so I'd have to go by smell. Even then, I'd need them to be out in the open. If this Panda guy locked 'em up in his own vault, we'll be out of luck."

Raimundo slouched against the table. "Hong Kong has seven million people in it. It's even bigger than Rio. Even with all the luck in the world, it would take us years to smell them out. I hate to say it," He shrugged in defeat and sent Omi a pitying expression, "but we might want to throw in the towel on the old Wu. I mean, more are going to reveal themselves later, right?"

Omi wilted in his seat. "But none of the new Shen Gong Wu will be my lucky Sword of the Storm..."

"I'll get it back for you, Omi," said Kimiko.

Omi wrinkled his nose at her. "I appreciate your offer to redeem yourself, Kimiko, but perhaps you should let us boys handle this. You have done quite enough already. What else could you do?"

Kimiko's blue eyes finally flickered up. Locking her gaze with Omi's, she unplugged the two devices, tossed one of them to Master Monk Chase, and held up her PDA to let the boys read the address off the screen. "I tracked down Pandabubba's headquarters."

* * *

Though Kimiko still believed that none of the boys were as annoying as Omi, the sudden unwanted attention from both Jack and Raimundo had them tied for second place. As Dojo circled over the parts of Hong Kong that he claimed, "Dashi never let me play in," the two teens hovered over each of Kimiko's shoulders and peppered her with questions.

"How'd you track him down so fast?" Raimundo leaned way too close for Kimiko's liking, though he didn't have much choice with Jack practically climbing on him to ogle her PDA.

"It wasn't too hard," she answered with a shrug. "Cross-referenced a bunch of news articles, texted some friends who knew people in Hong Kong, hacked a bunch of police files... basic stuff like that." When the two boys' mouths fell open, she sheepishly added, "I mean, turns out he has a giant panda statue on his roof. Kind of a giveaway."

"I didn't know you knew how to hack!" Jack practically had hearts in his eyes, he looked so impressed. "I've always needed a black box decrypter to do all the hard work for me! What programs do you have on your PDA?"

"Can you use it to track down anyone?" asked Raimundo, whose intense, creepy stare was almost as unwelcome as Jack's infatuation. "How accurate is it? Can it only figure out a home address, or could you hunt down a criminal's location at any time?" At Raimundo's words, Kimiko watched the enamored awe leave Jack's eyes. The redhead cleared his throat, climbed off of Raimundo, and scooted away from him. Raimundo hastily muttered, "N-not that I want to."

"Here we are, kiddos!" Dojo dipped down and landed outside a brick wall surrounding a gated mansion, atop which sat an enormous upright panda statue.

As the five clambered atop the brick wall, Omi said, "I shall take the ten guards to the north. Raimundo, take the seven in the east. Clay, the five in the west." He glanced down, paused, and pursed his lips. "Do any of you think Kimiko can handle the one guard in the south? He does look old and very out-of-shape." He snapped his fingers. "Oh, I know! Jack, you will accompany her!"

As the lone guard wheezed below them, Kimiko snarled, "I don't need help."

"You lost to Pandabubba's men once already," said Omi. "It is not your fault. Girls are not known for their fighting prowess. It is obvious that your skills lie elsewhere. My book suggests a kitchen, but perhaps you would do better at a computer?"

Kimiko lunged off the brick wall and kicked the guard in the head, knocking him unconscious in an instant. Tossing her hair back, she pocketed her PDA and strolled toward the mansion. "Are you boys coming or what?"

The three older boys had the sense to appear humble when they jumped and ran after her, but Omi was not far behind. Catching up and trotting behind her like a poorly trained puppy, he said, "Kimiko, you must understand that it is in your best interest to not let your feminine features hinder you. In fact, you do not have to remain a girl at all! Did you know it is possible to go to the doctor and take hormones to become a boy? If you are afraid of needles, there are gels you can-" One of Jack's shoes came flying across the yard and struck him on the head. "Ow!"

Through gritted teeth, Kimiko said, "Omi, first of all: I have no idea what you're even talking about. Second of all: I don't care."

"We oughta come up with a plan for who holds what Wu," said Clay, holding up the Tangle Web Comb. "We only got two of 'em, and there are five of us."

"Dibs on the Monkey Staff!" called Jack.

Pointing at Kimiko, Omi said, "If the Monkey Staff grants the user physical strength, then strategically it would be more sensible if-"

Clay scooped him up and clamped a hand over his mouth. "I reckon Kimiko oughta have the Tangle Web Comb. She's got more experience with it than the rest of us put together."

Kimiko paused at the mansion's outer wall and turned to them with her arms crossed. Eyebrows furrowed, she frowned and muttered, "Thanks, but no thanks. I think I'll do better without it."

"You sure?" Clay set Omi down and held the Tangle Web Comb out to her. "'Cause this Wu needs someone with absolute focus, and I ain't ever seen anyone focus as hard as you did this mornin' when you found Pandabubba's place." He smiled and winked.

Kimiko blushed and ducked her head. "S-so has anyone ever broken into a building before?"

The question had been rhetorical, but Raimundo casually raised his hand and ignored Clay's, Omi's, and Dojo's flummoxed stares. "I saw a skylight while we were flying down," he said. "That'll be the weak point to the house security."

Scaling the wall was an easy task for everyone but Jack, who needed the Monkey Staff to follow. Once they were on the roof, Raimundo picked at the lock of the skylight until it popped open, and the five dropped down into a wide and empty hallway. With a monkey-like chortle, Jack looked around, brushed some dust off his furry arm, and said, "Ha! Can you believe this guy? No guard, no alarm..."

On the other side of the hall, a large display sat under a bright light, just like a candle in the dark. Like a moth, Omi walked toward it and cried, "Our Shen Gong Wu! I see them right over-"

When he stepped past two lion statues against opposite walls, two red dots appeared on either side of his knee, and an alarm wailed in the distance. Omi froze, and Jack winced. "Ooh. Trip-wire beams. Shoulda seen that coming."

A red door opened near the display, and four henchmen dashed into the room. Another door thudded open behind them, and when they spun around, Pandabubba stood with his hands in his pockets and more goons flanking his sides. "Never steal from a thief." He narrowed his eyes. "Thieves."

"We are not thieves!" called Omi. "We are taking back what is rightfully ours!"

A translucent, masked purple creature descended down through the ceiling to Pandabubba's side, and she hissed, "My, my, the Chosen Ones, just as arrogant and entitled as always. Brought some back-up this time, Kimiko?"

Kimiko gritted her teeth, too annoyed to care that while Omi and Clay flinched back at the sight of Wuya, Jack and Raimundo seemed weirdly unfazed. "You're one to talk about needing back-up," she said. "At least I can throw my own punches."

"Mr. Bubba!" Omi pointed dramatically at Pandabubba, who scowled at the butchering of his own name. "Your reign of theft ends today! Prepare for a most humiliating defeat!" Each of the monks crouched into battle stances, and Omi lunged at the villain and cried, "Water!"

"Third Arm Sash!" said a white-suited guard. The blue sash around his waist struck like a snake, snatching Omi out of the air and tossing him into another statue. Jack let out an indignant monkey shriek, sprang at the guard, and pounced atop his shoulders. The Third Arm Sash reached around and grabbed him by the tail, but as the guard flailed, Jack only screeched louder.

Meanwhile, Clay and Kimiko took off in the opposite direction toward the lit display, a large white table upon which sat the Helmet of Jong, the Orb of Tornami, the Jetbootsu, the Shroud of Shadows, the Changing Chopsticks, and the Sword of the Storm. The four henchmen braced themselves between them and the table, and Clay barreled at them with a shout, "Earth!"

"Two Ton Tunic!" shouted one of the middle guards.

As the tunic expanded into a suit of impenetrable armor, Clay tried to skid to a stop before he could crash. His loss of momentum and balance gave a black-suited henchman time to yell with a swing of his arm, "Fist of Tebigong!"

"Fire!" Kimiko ducked down and swiped her leg at the man's ankles, tripping him and knocking him face-first into the marble floor. "I got your back!" she called to Clay, who grabbed the man in the Two Ton Tunic and shoved him back toward the other scattering goons.

At the other side of the hallway, Omi tried another lunge at Pandabubba, but the man sneered, planted the Mask of Rio on his face, and disappeared. Raimundo had all his attention focused on the one guard who had dared to grab Jack by the tail and was giving the poor idiot a rather sound beating. The dots on Omi's head flared, and he pointed toward the display. "Pandabubba is heading for the Shen Gong Wu!"

As miffed as she was at him, Kimiko knew better than to question Omi's tiger instincts. She ducked around two guards, clambered onto the table, and knocked aside the Helmet of Jong to grab the Sword of the Storm. However, when she lifted it off the table, it began to glow, and Pandabubba appeared at its other side, gripping its blade.

He winced in the light. "What is this?"

As if transfixed, everyone in the room stopped fighting and turned their attention toward the two atop the table. Omi gasped, "It is a Xiaolin Showdown!"

Dojo clambered out from Clay's hat and gave an impressed whistle. "Ooh, been a while since I've seen one of these." At Clay's puzzled look, he explained, "A Xiaolin Showdown is what happens when two warriors reach a stalemate over a Shen Gong Wu. Two words: frea-ky!"

Wuya swooped down and snarled at Pandabubba's ear, "Quickly! The two of you will have to duel for the Sword of the Storm. You must each wager a Shen Gong Wu and decide a game. Pick them before she does!"

Pandabubba's wide, frog-like mouth pulled into a smirk. "Very well. I'll wager my Mask of Rio against that comb of yours, the one that gave you so much trouble the other night."

Kimiko rested her free hand on her hip. "Wager whatever Wu you want. The game is Goo Zombies, high score wins!" She leaned forward. "We'll see how big and bad you are without an army of minions to do all your fighting for you. Let's go: Xiaolin Showdown!"

The room evaporated in a burst of light. Kimiko was too surprised to make a sound while the brightness faded into nothing, and she found herself standing in a pitch-black void with Pandabubba next to her. Her red Xiaolin robes had replaced the bright, frilly clothes she had been wearing seconds ago. A pink baseball cap dropped onto her head, and when she reached up to touch the brim, she heard a nervous voice overhead, "Where in tarnation did they go? Are they-?"

She peered up at a bright rectangle in the sky, and the boys and Dojo all gawked down at her. Out of the void appeared the words, GOO ZOMBIES 3: THE EATENING, in neon green and red letters. Despite the absolute shock of finding herself within a literal video game console, she could only think to say, "Goo Zombies 3? But Papa said it's still in beta testing."

Pandabubba snatched his own pink baseball cap off his head and tossed it. "Bah, kids stuff."

"Gong Yi Tampai!" yelled Dojo from above. When everyone turned to stare at him, he beamed around for a moment before adding, "That means 'Go.'"

Kimiko heard Jack call out, "Omi, hit the start button!" Then the void flickered and faded into a foggy, pixelated forest. LEVEL 1: DEATH WOODSflashed over their heads in thin yellow letters. Fingers still gripping the brim of her hat, Kimiko took a step forward, and she heard groaning. The same zombies she had spent hours battling in the privacy of her room now stalked toward her from out of the fog, grimy and moaning.

While Pandabubba stumbled away from the sight, Kimiko yanked the cap off her head and threw it at the nearest zombie. At contact, the zombie evaporated in a burst of pixels. The cap spun in the air and landed back in Kimiko's open hand. With a smirk, she said to her rival, "You should have kept your cap."

Wrinkling his nose, Pandabubba pressed his Shen Gong Wu against his face. "Mask of Rio!" He vanished on the spot, and Kimiko spun to face the rest of the approaching zombies.

While she threw her cap, Clay's voice was distant and just a touch shaky overhead. "So lemme get this straight. Kimiko's trapped in the game? All 'cause of the Sword o' the Storm?"

"That's a Xiaolin Showdown for you," said Dojo, smiling and nonplussed while Kimiko battled. "Always keeps you guessing!"

"And she gets out when she wins?" asked Clay.

"What happens if she loses?" asked Omi.

Kimiko didn't hear the answer through the groaning of a zombie latching onto her shoulder. She gave it a kick, and it disintegrated like the others. Distantly, she could hear Jack explaining the game rules to Clay, "Yeah! The first level is the grinding one: she gets points for every zombie she beats, and all those points add up to the health bar she'll have in the next two levels. So the more points she gets, the more damage she can take."

"D-damage?" muttered Clay.

If Kimiko's heart wasn't currently made of pixels, it probably would have been pounding right now. Knocking down the final zombie, she looked up at two health bars in the sky: she had 120 points, and Pandabubba had somehow collected 110 points of his own. The forest faded into a wrecked urban landscape, and the words, LEVEL 2: CALAMITY CITY, appeared overhead.

Kimiko spent a split second looking around for Pandabubba, but he was either still invisible or stuck on the previous level because she saw no trace of him. She had no time to dwell on it; green balls of goo shot out from the broken skyscraper windows, and she bolted further onto the street to dodge them.

Now that the overall shock was dulling, Kimiko found this level easier than the previous one. After years of button mashing in her room, she had mastered the art of the thrown baseball cap; the zombies of this level crumbled before her. Though she felt no pain, every smack of goo against her skin sent her health bar dropping lower, but Pandabubba's was fading even faster. By the time she reached the city hall, her rival's health was a red sliver.

He finally stumbled into sight a few feet away from the level's end, covered in goo and limping. The Mask of Rio dropped onto the street, and when a cluster of zombies crawled out from behind a wrecked car, Kimiko's cap could only strike the nearest one. The rest pounced on Pandabubba.

"Stay back!" hollered Pandabubba, dropping under their weight and buried in goo. His health bar dropped to zero, and there was a horrifying second where Kimiko wondered if the zombies could actually kill him. Her cap dropped to the ground in her panic, and she ran forward. In a flurry of kicks and punches, the zombies vanished, leaving Pandabubba sticky and panting in the street.

The words GAME OVER appeared in red letters directly over his head, but not hers. A yellow arrow appeared above the city hall, pointing into the opening double doors of the building. Pandabubba glared at her and said, "You'll never win now! Your health bar is too low!"

"You're one to talk," said Kimiko, not even looking at him. She trotted up the stairs and through the double doors, and the words LEVEL 3: ZOMBIESAURUS REX appeared over her. She faintly heard Jack squeal excitedly over the title, and just as she remembered that she had dropped her baseball cap outside, the double doors slammed shut.

Broken desks and scattered papers littered the wide hallway, lit only by a dim skylight. Out of the shadows rose a drooling, scaly creature dripping green from the open wound at its visible rib cage. A gurgling hiss emanated through the hundreds of teeth in its open mouth, and its red eyes fixed upon her.

Kimiko pulled from her pocket the Tangle Web Comb, her only weapon left. The storm in her mind rumbled while she remembered how the comb had turned on her before, and what if it failed now, and could this thing actually eat her, and would being in a video game prevent her from actually dying-?

The undead dinosaur barreled forward, knocking aside a desk with a toss of its head, and Kimiko jumped aside with a shriek. She heard Omi babble something overhead, and she didn't even care how patronizing it probably was. The rex swerved and slammed into the wall, but it kept its eyes trained on her. She spun to face it and yelled, "Tangle Web Comb!"

The tendrils shot out, but instead of hitting their target, they swirled in the air like they were caught in a typhoon. Kimiko stepped back. The dinosaur stepped forward and snapped its teeth, ripping the tendrils out of the air. The rest zapped back into the comb, and Kimiko had no choice but to duck behind another desk. The boys kept calling advice from above, but she could barely understand any of their chatter. Brainstorming frantically, she tried to remember how she had beaten Goo Zombies 2; maybe there were some hidden power-ups in the room-

The rex chomped down on the desk, flung it aside, and roared. Goo sprayed into her face, and as she fell back with a startled outcry, her health bar dropped overhead. Facing a wall of teeth and with all her pixelated limbs quivering, she pointed her only weapon at the beast.

Through all the noise and fear, Clay's voice cut down like a blade, "You got this, Kim!" A shaky breath filled her lungs, and she locked eyes with the dinosaur. One target. No distractions. She'd beaten every game in this franchise; she was a pro. No one in the world was as qualified to fight this thing as she was. She had led their way here, she had gotten this far, and she was a Xiaolin Dragon. Focus.

As the storm in her mind went quiet, a flame bloomed inside her. She stood, swung the comb in an arc across her torso, and yelled, "Tangle Web Comb, FIRE!"

Instead of the dull brown tendrils of before, the ropes that burst to life before her glowed and sparked white-hot. She spun, and the ropes swirled around her like a vortex before slicing across the dinosaur's face. It roared and stumbled back. The ropes dropped at Kimiko's feet, heavy and aflame like whips made of fire. With a flick of her wrist, they jumped back to life, filling the room with light as they swirled and latched around the dinosaur's jaw.

With its mouth clamped shut and burning, the creature's shriek was muffled as it flailed and thrashed. The orange light gleamed in Kimiko's eyes while she held the Shen Gong Wu high. The dinosaur's health bar, a massive line in the sky, dropped to nothing. Lightning flashed from the skylight, dim compared to the flames, and Kimiko's opponent exploded in a blast of green pixels.

The room filled with the letters, LEVEL 3 COMPLETE: WINNER: KIMIKO.

The scene gave way to empty whiteness, and as sensation flooded back into Kimiko's body, she found herself back in Pandabubba's headquarters, still standing on the large display table. The Tangle Web Comb, the Mask of Rio, and the Sword of the Storm all rested in her arms. With no more video game beeps and battle music to fill her ears, she heard only the cheers of her teammates. She glanced down just as the boys rushed to gather around the table.

"You added your own element to the Shen Gong Wu!" Jack gasped, eyes round and almost as large as Omi's head. "Master Chase says only apprentices have the skill to do that!"

"You were shinin' out there brighter than fireworks on the fourth of July," said Clay, smiling wider than Kimiko had ever seen from him. "I reckon that Pandabubba fellow oughta be runnin' like a dog with its tail between legs-"

"He sure did," Raimundo muttered, glancing around at the otherwise empty room and looking sheepish for having to point it out. "He and his goons must have taken off with the other Wu before the Showdown was over."

"Hey now, let's not rain on Kimiko's parade here!" Dojo clambered atop Clay's hat and nodded in approval at her. "She just won the first Xiaolin Showdown of your generation!"

"Heh, yep, first one," Jack said, avoiding eye contact. Raimundo glared at him for some reason.

Kimiko turned her attention to Omi, who gripped the table with both hands and gazed longingly at the Sword of the Storm. When she crouched down and held the handle out for him, he stepped away and said, "No, no, Kimiko, you won it quite fairly. It is your Shen Gong Wu now."

She raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, but I didn't get it for me."

Omi's fingers fiddled with the hem of his shirt. He ducked his head down and said to the floor, "I owe you an apology, Kimiko. It seems that I severely underestimated your capabilities, and I would not be surprised if doing so hurt your feelings."

Jack's mouth dropped open as if he had never heard Omi make a sincere apology in his entire life. Kimiko shrugged and said, "Not really; I don't hold grudges for long. We're going to have to have a talk about that book of yours, though."

She offered the sword to him again, and after a timid bite of his lip, he snatched it up and hugged it like a best friend. Beaming at her, he said, "Not to worry, Kimiko; I have learned the errors of my ways! You have taught me the strength of women, so now I completely understand the modern female!"

With a roll of her eyes, she sat on the table and twirled the Tangle Web Comb in one hand. "Let's just say you've made a step in the right direction."


	17. Chapter 17

Jack Spicer was fine, thanks.

A few days after Kimiko's successful showdown against Pandabubba, he finished wiring up the new and improved security system to the vault, complete with cameras, environmental sensors, alarms, power outage back-ups, and of course the classic Jackbots themselves stationed at every entrance. His dramatic reveal of the SecuriJack generated a response from his teammates he had never gotten before: applause. Well, golf claps, anyway. His friends were genuinely impressed, and that was what mattered. Between his robotic breakthroughs, his improvement at training lessons thanks to the Monkey Staff, and the fact that all of the other Xiaolin Dragons actually seemed to enjoy his company, things were honestly going really well for Jack Spicer.

He was fine. Really.

He wasn't even getting dragon-sick anymore; while Dojo drifted over a logging factory near a dammed river, he could peer down along with the others without feeling the slightest bit nauseated. As they circled the water, clear but filled with floating wood, Raimundo pointed and said, "Down there? Looks like a vulture?"

"That's the one!" said Dojo. The monks sprang down, and Jack summoned his trusty Monkey Staff to land gracefully on a bobbing log. Balanced precariously on another log ahead of them sat a bronze, bird-shaped Shen Gong Wu.

Raimundo pointed up toward the road leading to the factory. "Got company on our left." The other monks bristled and turned to look, but the man trotting toward them was definitely not Guan or Pandabubba. With a blond bowl-cut, a pink shirt squeezed around a massive torso, and a scrawny set of legs, he was unfamiliar.

"Probably a factory employee," said Kimiko with a disinterested shrug. "It's not like we were invited. He probably thinks we're going to leave graffiti somewhere or something."

Clay pulled a lasso out of his hat, swirled the rope overhead, and tossed it to their target. "Well, then let's rope this doggy and roll on outta here-"

Raimundo pointed again, this time while crouched into a fighting stance. Just as the others realized the man had a certain purple ghost swirling around his shoulders, he reached the edge of the cliff, sprang out into the water, and landed among the floating wood. With his attention diverted, Clay's lasso missed the Shen Gong Wu and landed empty in the water. Clay swiftly started pulling the rope back to himself, and the other monks spun on their logs to face Wuya and her newest goon.

"Did you dump Pandabubba already, Wuya?" Kimiko raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Or did he dump you?"

Floating around the man's tacky hairdo, Wuya scowled. In a thick Russian accent, the man grinned and answered, "Panda-man hired me off internet to fetch Shen Gong Wu for Wuya. No dumping."

"So 'Panda-man' is too scared to show his face after I kicked his butt?" Kimiko tossed her hair back. "Got it."

"Enough chattering!" Wuya swooped down to her newest hire's eye level. "Vlad, get the Shadow of Fear!"

Vlad let out an awkward, deep-throated evil laugh that made Jack wince and shake his head in secondhand embarrassment, but then the villain darted across the logs toward the Shen Gong Wu. The monks leaped into action. Running on all fours, Jack let out his totally way cooler monkey laugh, and his speed brought him to the Shen Gong Wu just in time to grab it along with Vlad.

Vlad's thick eyebrows curved downward. "Which one are you?"

Jack offered his free hand to Vlad, who didn't shake it. "Jack Spicer, Xiaolin Boy Genius, Dragon of Meta-" His introduction gave way to an earsplitting monkey screech, and he shook his head to clear it. Baring his fanged teeth in a grin, he said, "Guess what, Heylin loser? I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown! My Monkey Staff against your..." He paused. "What have you got?"

"Panda-man lend me Fist of Tebigong," said Vlad, lifting up the metal glove.

"Nice! We'll be glad to take that back after I kick your butt!" Jack pointed a hairy finger across the water. "We race across the logs, and the first to get to shore wins."

He heard shouts of encouragement from his teammates behind him, and Omi called out, "Prepare for a humiliating defeat, minion of Wuya! Jack will wipe the floor with you!"

Beaming at the open support, Jack said, "Let's go: Xiaolin Showdown!"

The logs shot up out of the water. When the rest of the earth dropped away from them, Jack clung to his log and shrieked. His Xiaolin robes appeared around his brown-furred body, nearly trapping his tail in the pants. By the time the logs came to a stop, the sky had turned dark and starry. The Shadow of Fear perched on a lone plot of land floating in the air at the other side of the battlefield. Though Jack was unafraid of heights, he pointedly chose not to look down when he peeled his limbs off the log and stood slightly more upright. The other monks huddled on another floating chunk of land behind him, and Vlad stood nearby. If the scenery had spooked him, he didn't show it.

Jack and Wuya shouted, "Gong Yi Tampai!"

Jack's battle cry gave way to another monkey hoot, and he jumped. Forgetting about Vlad completely, he let his instincts take over. He was just like any other monkey in a tree, leaping on all fours from branch to branch. He became distantly aware of the pink-shirted man racing after him with the Fist of Tebigong held aloft, but the man was clumsy and slow, tripping over branches and nearly dropping into the starry abyss. Jack cackled as the distance grew between them. He had struggled with races and all other athletic pursuits his whole life, but this was easy!

A few jumps away from the Shadow of Fear, he heard his opponent yell something. Jack paused long enough to turn around and stick out his tongue. As he focused, he watched Vlad climb back onto his feet and holler, "You are like monkey, yes?" He pulled something out of his pocket and held his palm up high. "You like these, monkey man?"

Jack's head perked up when he turned his full attention to the sparkles in Vlad's hand. His distant, far more human brain recognized them as rubles and kopecks, but his monkey brain only saw something shiny. The Shadow of Fear was certainly interesting, but it wasn't shiny.

Vlad's wide mouth curved into a gleeful smirk. "You want these? Oh!" He reached into his back pocket, pulled out the mushy remnants of an apple, and held it out. "What about this?"

Jack spun the rest of his fluffy body away from the Shadow of Fear and took a leap closer to Vlad. Shiny things were already awesome, but fruit, too? Yes, please!

He yelled across the field, "Hey, gimme that!" Vlad grinned and dropped the apple and coins into a tree knot near his boots. Jack screeched in outrage and started jumping back the way he came, making a beeline straight for that knot. He barely noticed Vlad's stupid, ugly laugh as they sprung past each other, heading in opposite directions.

When Jack landed at the log with the knot, he shoved his hand inside and wrapped his fingers around something wet and squishy. However, when he yanked, his closed fist hit the knot, too big to come back out. With an angry hoot, he bared his teeth and tried pulling harder, but the hole would not give way. Distantly, he could hear four more voices calling out in a range of confusion, annoyance, and outrage. Whoever they were, they must be just as mad as he was that he couldn't get his apple!

He heard one more stupid laugh from the pink-shirted man, and then the Showdown was over. The logs dropped, and Jack's Monkey Staff evaporated from his other hand. His tail and fur receded, and with a far more human scream, he dropped into icy water.

Sputtering, he flailed until a strong hand grabbed his arm and pulled him up. He winced in the sunlight while Clay set him back down, and he had to blink several times before he could really process what had just happened. He opened up his palm, now sticky from old chunks of apple. Jack wrinkled his nose. "Eww."

Out on shore, Vlad and Wuya cackled. "Monkey Staff!" shouted Vlad. He sprang onto a pine like the world's ugliest blond gorilla, and he and Wuya retreated into the forest with the Shadow of Fear in hand.

Raimundo crouched near Jack, who jumped at his presence, and said, "Dojo, you're way faster than that guy. We can go after him and outnumber him."

"We are Xiaolin Warriors, Raimundo," said Omi. "We are bound by our honor. Vlad won the Showdown, and therefore he keeps the Monkey Staff and the Shadow of Fear." He glanced at Jack, who braced himself for the impending temper tantrum, but Omi merely gave him an exasperated smile and said, "Cheer up, Jack! There is no shame in a humiliating defeat!"

Jack looked around at his teammates. "You guys aren't mad?"

Clay shrugged and tipped his hat back. "You gave it an honest effort. Can't fault you for that."

"Master Monk Chase did kinda warn you about the Monkey Staff," said Kimiko, fingers idly grazing the Tangle Web Comb nestled in her hair. "You just got too dependent on it, that's all."

Dojo expanded and swirled around the monks gathered on the water. "Don't worry, kids; you win some, you lose some. And like the Fungmeister says, there are no lessons in victory, but a thousand in defeat."

"Besides, _querido_ ," said Raimundo, offering Jack a hand while the other three climbed onto the dragon, "you didn't come out empty-handed. You won an apple."

Jack glanced down at the mushy fruit in his palm, made a disgusted gagging noise, and dropped it. When he realized how close Raimundo was standing, another similar sound escaped his mouth before he could stop it, and he clambered to his feet without Raimundo's help. Raimundo's amused smirk dropped, and let his offered hand drop back down. Ducking his head, he mumbled, "Not my best joke, I guess."

Jack forced a weak grin onto his face as he climbed onto Dojo. Gaze to the ground, Raimundo followed. After giving the two boys a puzzled look, Kimiko turned and asked, "Dojo, what does the Shadow of Fear do?"

Dojo took to the air, and to everyone's horror, he pulled the ancient scroll out of his own ear. Unraveling it and flicking off bits of wax, he squinted and read, "It allows you to enter your opponent's dreams and bring to life their deepest and darkest fears."

Raimundo, Kimiko, and Clay all winced, but Omi sat up tall and said, "Ha! Then I have no worries because I have no fears!"

Jack snorted and rolled his eyes. "Speak for yourself, Chrome Dome." At the curious gazes of the other three, he clarified, "Mine is drowning. Specifically in a toilet, thanks to some, uh, fun times in first grade. Though any tube with water will do it now," he leaned and narrowed his eyes at Omi, "especially after a certain game of hide and seek with a certain bald monk."

"Are you still mad about that?" Omi whirled to face him, mouth hanging open. "It was your idea to climb in the well! And I was three years old!"

"You left me in there for two days!"

"I couldn't find you! That was the point of hide and seek!"

While the two boys bickered, Kimiko's mouth twisted like she wasn't sure whether to sympathize or laugh. When she glanced over at Clay, he shook his head and said, "I ain't even gonna ask."

Jack Spicer stood tall upon the roof of his old elementary school, and his glorious black cape billowed behind him in the wind. His scarlet red hair was as long and luxurious as Master Monk Chase's, and his Xiaolin robes stretched around arm muscles thick enough to crush a car like a tin can. Beaming proudly, he gazed down upon the courtyard of the Xiaolin temple, where his dear friends frolicked without a care in the world.

Suddenly, a pride of lions burst from the school's double doors. Omi and Kimiko yelped and clung to Clay while the cats circled around them. Warlord Guan stepped onto the courtyard, pointed, and shouted, "None of you have finished your math homework, and for that, you must pay! Say goodbye to your pants!"

Jack flipped on his helipack and jumped from the roof. His voice was deep and quite sexy when he said, "Not so fast, Heylin Warlord Guan!" He landed among his teammates just in time to catch Clay, who fainted into his arms. Omi and Kimiko gave awed gasps, and Jack lifted a pointer finger high into the air. "Jackbots, attack!"

In perfect battle formation, the Jackbots dropped from the golden sky and scattered the jungle cats. Guan charged at the Xiaolin Warriors, and with rippling biceps, Jack punched him in the jaw. Guan burst into tears.

Kimiko and Omi applauded, and Clay opened his eyes to gaze up at Jack with reverence. Still crying, Guan gathered up the cats in his arms and ran away. Master Monk Chase appeared, bowed to Jack, and held out a gold trophy to him. "Jack, for your amazing heroism, I grant you the Best Xiaolin Warrior In All History Award." He stepped closer and stroked a lock of Jack's hair. "And yes, Jack, I will date you."

Kimiko gasped and clutched at her chest. With watery blue eyes, she looked up at Jack and said, "But I wanted to date Jack! He's so cool and smart; we could play Goo Zombies and Mine Creeper together!"

Clay pouted and said, "Do I not get a chance to date you, Jack?"

"Everyone, please." Jack tossed his hair back with an easy chuckle. Lifting Clay to hold him bridal style while Chase and Kimiko clung to each of his bulging shoulders, he said, "Jack Spicer, Xiaolin Boy Genius and World Hero, has enough love for everyone! I will date all of you!"

Kimiko, Clay, and Master Monk Chase all cheered. Omi bowed down to Jack and said with a delighted smile, "You have truly bested me in every way, Jack! Please teach me everything you know!"

Before Jack could confirm that of course he would grace little Omi with his genius, he heard a door slam open. The wind ceased, and his cape drooped to the dirt.

Blinking, Jack glanced around. His school and the temple courtyard had disappeared. He now stood in an empty street, surrounded by shabby, beige buildings. In the shadows of an alleyway, a door creaked back and forth on its hinges with the words, "Jack Spicer's Deepest and Darkest Fear," written on it in dripping red letters. Pressed against the wall near the door, Vlad held the Shadow of Fear and stared at something behind Jack with round, bewildered eyes.

Clouds darkened the sky and rumbled. The skin on the back of Jack's neck crawled, and he turned to face up the street. With a white, blood-stained hoodie drawn over his head, Raimundo stood with his hands in his pockets. Red droplets stained his face, and he stared at Jack with the intensity of a hawk. "You know, Jack," he murmured, "I'm starting to rethink our little deal."

Jack took a step back, and his hands clenched into feeble fists. The other warriors, his muscles, and even his cool cape were gone. "H-hey, Beta Brawn, I was wondering where you were."

"Were you?" Raimundo's gaze was cold. "Here's the thing, Jack: you're a terrible liar. It's only a matter of time before the other monks start wondering what you're trying to hide, and you let something slip." He pulled a blade out of his pocket, already stained dark.

"Me? No, no, no!" Jack waved his sweaty palms in front of his face. "My lips are sealed, big guy! I promise!"

"You think you can keep quiet about what you saw in Rio?" Raimundo twirled the knife between his fingers and stalked toward him. "Don't worry; you'll carry my secret to your grave. I'll make sure of it."

Jack's blood turned icy. He stumbled and dropped back onto his butt. Scooting away, he babbled, "No, Rai, come on, listen, you can't- I'm your friend! We're buddies, right?"

Raimundo strolled to him and planted a foot on Jack's chest, pinning him to the dark road. Pointing the knife back toward the alleyway, he said in a low voice, "Friends? Jack, if we were friends, would I have stepped out of that door?"

"Raimundo, Beta, buddy, please!" Jack kicked and tried to claw his way out from Raimundo's foot, but he couldn't move. His limbs were cold. Everything was cold. "I swear, I swear, I won't tell anyone! Don't do me ugly! Raimundo, no, please don't!"

Lightning cracked overhead, flashing across Raimundo's empty eyes, and he slammed the blade down into Jack's throat.

Jack shrieked and thrashed in his bed. Bits of his robots clattered to the floor from the tossing of his blanket, and as he kicked off the covers, he opened his eyes. Raimundo stared back down at him.

Jack screamed again and flailed his arms, but Raimundo merely sat back to dodge. Eyebrows high, he said quietly, "Jack, hey. Are you alright?"

"Get out!" Jack hissed, scrambling until he had his back pressed against the wall. "Go away!"

"Dude, you had a nightmare." Raimundo shifted until he was crouched on his knees. "You're awake now; you're alright."

Jack's hand scuffled around on the ground, searching for a weapon and finding nothing. "What are you doing in here? Get out of my room!"

"You said my name. In your sleep. You said it a few times." Raimundo's eyebrows furrowed, and his mouth curved downward. "I thought you were... calling me for help...?" He watched Jack cower away from him, and his shoulders drooped. His gaze lost focus for a moment while he put the mental puzzle pieces together. "Oh. Got it."

"We have a deal!" Jack sputtered, wrapping his arms around his knees and pressing back into the wall like he could fuse with it. "I'm keeping my end; you gotta keep yours!"

"I... Yeah, man." Raimundo stood up and backed away from Jack, palms out. "No problem. I'm... Yeah." Pushing aside the curtain to Jack's room, he mumbled to the floor, "Sorry to, um... Good night." He left the room and let the curtain close behind him. Jack trembled against the wall and gulped for air until his heart dropped out of his throat and back into his chest.

Maybe he wasn't fine after all.


	18. Chapter 18

The next morning, after Jack crawled out of bed and hobbled to the kitchen, he found the other monks already there and in various stages of exhaustion. Eyes barely open, Omi looked ready to collapse in a bowl of eggs. Kimiko trudged toward the pantry, spilled a bit of orange juice, and immediately slipped on it. Her plate of bacon sailed across the air and slapped into Clay, who swerved in place, accidentally tossing a half-cooked pancake onto Jack's head. The only one in the room who seemed remotely alert was Raimundo, but even he had the usual dark circles under his eyes.

When Kimiko's plate smashed into the wooden floor, Master Monk Chase stepped into the room, followed closely by Master Fung, who raised an eyebrow and said, "Looks like my young monks had trouble sleeping last night."

Omi spun in place and swayed back against the kitchen cabinets, too worn out to show any excitement for Master Fung's return. Clay rubbed at his eyes and said to Jack, "Sorry, guess I'm a tad tired. I didn't get enough shut-eye to put a wag in a flea's tail."

Jack peeled pancake out of his already greasy hair and shrugged. "Yeah, same."

"I had a really weird dream," said Kimiko, scratching at her hair. "That Vlad guy was in it."

"Me, too," said Clay, turning to her. "Did he do his evil laugh?" Kimiko nodded.

Master Monk Chase shook his head and smiled in sympathy, and Master Fung said, "Now that Wuya has the Shadow of Fear, it is possible that she and Vlad are visiting your dreams."

"Eww." Kimiko wrinkled her nose. "Talk about wanting to wash my brain out."

Jack wrapped his arms around his belly and bit his lip, already losing his appetite. Before he could say anything, Omi shuffled past him and squared his small shoulders. "U-uh, I am not afraid of anything Wuya or Vlad could find inside my head!"

Master Fung raised an eyebrow. "Omi, since you are so unafraid, you will watch over the Shen Gong Wu."

Omi's face paled, and Master Monk Chase took a step further into the kitchen. "That will actually not be necessary, Master Fung. I have not yet shown you Jack's new security system. I assure you, it is quite infallible." Master Fung actually frowned a bit at the other elder's intervention, but before anyone could ponder it, Master Monk Chase continued, "We will resume training after breakfast as usual. I will see you monks outside shortly."

With a curt nod, he left the room. Master Fung turned back to the younger monks and said, "Jack, could I have a word?"

Raimundo's and Jack's eyebrows lifted, but everyone else was too tired to care. Jack stepped around the kitchen table and followed Master Fung out into the hallway. Once alone, the elder turned to Jack. "Young monk, you seem far more troubled since the last time I saw you. Is there something you need to tell me?"

Jack felt the blood drain from his face. Spinning his head to check that Raimundo hadn't followed, he smiled nervously and said, "Me? No, I'm super. I'm peachy keen. Couldn't you tell? Omi's the one with something to hide; he's scared of squirrels, you know!"

"I am well aware of Omi's fears. I raised him from infancy." Master Fung folded his fingers and studied Jack, who repressed the urge to flinch. "Nonetheless, if you need assistance, your teachers are here to help you. Do not burden yourself with unnecessary adversity. If you are in danger-"

"I'm not!"

Eyes narrowing, Master Fung finally lifted his chin. "Very well. We will see you outside with the others." When he strolled away, Jack gave him two sweaty thumbs up and silently wondered how long he could keep this up.

* * *

Late that evening, Master Monk Chase sat at the porch and idly watched the Shen Gong Wu vault from a distance. He had complete trust in Jack's security system, but a part of him was curious to see it in action. The poor young monk needed a confidence boost after his abysmal performance in training today. It had been a mistake for Chase to allow Shen Gong Wu during lessons; Jack had clearly grown far too dependent on the Monkey Staff, and without it, he was now far behind the others in physical prowess. Not only that, but Chase suspected something heavy weighed on Jack's mind. The boy had been flighty, distant, and anti-social ever since the retrieval of the Mask of Rio, and the last two were highly unlike him.

Chase heard the shuffling of socked feet in the halls behind him, and he turned slightly. He knew Raimundo had trouble sleeping; Chase had caught him wandering the halls in the wee hours of the morning ever since he first moved here. Raimundo always dismissed his concerns by claiming homesickness, and Chase had finally decided not to pester him on the matter.

However, Raimundo was not the boy who stepped out onto the porch with fingers twiddling. Jack scuffed the toes of his slipper against the wooden floor and said, "H-hey, Master Chase. What's up?"

"I am quite well, Jack," said Chase, taking a sip of his tea. "What brings you out of bed this late?"

"U-uh." Jack bit his lip and avoided eye contact. His hair looked greasy and unwashed. Chase briefly wandered if he needed to have another conversation with the boy about personal hygiene; he thought their talk a few years ago had been effective, but perhaps not. Then Jack took a deep breath and said, "Um, so. I have a random, philosophical, totally hypothetical question for you."

Master Monk Chase raised an eyebrow, and his cup of tea lowered a little. "Yes?"

Jack gulped. "Um. How do you know if a bad person can become a good person?" His fingers twisted, and he added, "Like, how do you know if someone can change, or if they're too far gone? What if it's a friend of yours, and you thought— Again, this is completely hypothetical, so."

Chase's other eyebrow joined the first, rising in surprise. Under normal circumstances, he would have found Jack's inquiry suspicious, or at least a little odd. But this specific question… With a sigh, he gazed down at his tea, which he settled into his lap. "I ask myself the same thing sometimes."

Jack took a step closer and tilted his head. "Y-you do?"

"Indeed. Tell me, Jack," Chase brushed a stray lock of hair out of his eyes and turned his full attention to the young monk, "is your question referring to me or to Heylin Warlord Guan?"

Jack blinked at him and stammered for a second. "U-uh. Neither? Or uh. Never mind." He gulped, and his fingers kept fiddling in front of his chest. "You and Guan? What do you mean?"

"Warlord Guan was once my best friend." Chase paused at Jack's little squawk of surprise before he continued, "He and I trained with Grand Master Dashi at the Xiaolin Temple 1,500 years ago. Together, the three of us defeated Wuya and brought peace to the world."

"Wait, wait, wait." Jack held out a palm while he sat down next to Chase with wide, sleep-deprived red eyes. "Guan? The loud, angry lobster man? He was a Xiaolin Dragon? You two were friends?!"

"He wasn't always loud and angry." Chase turned his gaze out toward the mountains. "If anything, I was the loud and angry one. When we were kids, I was ambitious and eager to rise in rank, while Guan was content to follow the rules and keep his head down. He was always far more patient than I."

Eyeing Chase's serene demeanor up and down, Jack pursed his lips. "No offense, Chase, but I have a hard time buying that."

"Well, to answer part of your question, Jack, people do change." Chase rested his chin on his fist and smiled. "Despite our differences, Guan and I were always drawn to each other. I admired him, and I was jealous of the qualities he had that I lacked. In hindsight, I believe he felt similarly toward me. Why else would he turn to...?" His smile dropped, and his grip tightened on the cup.

Jack scooted a bit closer. "What happened?"

Chase grimaced. "After Wuya was defeated, Hannibal Bean approached Guan and convinced him, or perhaps forced him, into drinking the Lao Mang Long soup." At Jack's blank stare, he clarified, "It is an ancient potion that turns the drinker forever young, granting them untold strength and power. Thanks to it, Guan can no longer age, and he can shape-shift into a, uh, lobster man, as you eloquently put it."

"Why did he do it?"

"I don't know." Chase's fingernails scraped through his hair. "I will never know how Hannibal Bean coerced him to drink the soup, nor will I ever forget the sight of my dearest friend striking Dashi down." His gaze turned to the temple archway. "On that day, I swore that until Guan was defeated, or until he returned to the Xiaolin side, I would be there to meet his match. As long as his and Hannibal's evil reigned, I would protect the temple that Dashi called home." He gave a long, world-weary sigh. "Ancient Xiaolin magic… it works in strange ways. It has been 1,500 years, and yet ever since I made that oath, I have not aged a day."

"You're 1,500 years old?" Jack asked, face even paler than usual.

"Yes, Jack. I've told you that before, as have Dojo and Master Fung."

"I thought you were all kidding! I thought it was, like, an ironic joke because you look so much younger than the other masters!" Jack took a couple deep breaths when Chase chuckled softly. "You haven't defeated him in 1,500 years? Are he and Hannibal Bean really that strong?"

Chase's face fell, and he stared out to the horizon again. "I am afraid a part of me does not want to defeat him. Warlord Guan is one of the most dangerous threats you monks will ever face, and it is my fault that I have failed to destroy him, but…" A pained, vulnerable grimace dulled his features. "A part of me keeps hoping that he can change. I have never forgotten the monk he once was, and I have been unable to let go of the hope that my dearest, oldest friend could return to me."

Silence fell heavy between the two. While Master Monk Chase watched the clouds shift among the stars in the sky, Jack watched the steam fade from the tea turning cold. Finally, the young monk said, "Maybe he will come back someday? Maybe you could just… um, you could…"

"That's just the problem, Jack: there is nothing I can do." In a gesture more helpless than he had ever allowed Jack to see from him, Chase rested his face in his hands. "No matter how much I miss him, he does not want to return. I cannot fix him, and I cannot help him. He has chosen the Heylin way. He does not want to change, and therefore, he won't."

After another silent moment, Chase swiftly pulled his hands away and straightened his shoulders. Clearing his throat, he turned to his student. "So to fully answer your hypothetical question, Jack, I advise that you be wary. I truly believe that a… bad person can become a good person, no matter what their crime. But that person will have to make that choice and that journey alone. You cannot change them yourself. Do not burden yourself with that responsibility. Do not be like me."

* * *

Four days later, Jack still mulled over Master Monk Chase's words while Dojo sailed over the ocean toward a lighthouse on a cliff. While Omi opened up the ancient scroll way up front, Dojo said, "This Wu, as you cool kids call it, is called the Reversing Mirror. It reverses the effect of any Shen Gong Wu, like turning the Two Ton Tunic light as a feather. This is one of the big ones, kiddos, so you'll need to be on your A-game."

Raimundo, sitting at the back of the line, leaned and asked, "Could we use it against Vlad's Shadow of Fear? Would it make his fears come out instead? Or would it, I dunno, bring out our deepest desires...?" His voice trailed off as if the possibility made him uncomfortable.

"Good question," said Dojo. "Shen Gong Wu have shown tendencies to respond to their users' intentions, so I bet it could do either!" He winked back at the group. "You'll just have to win it and find out for sure!"

Omi pointed dramatically to the sky. "Then we shall move most swiftly and retrieve the Reversing Mirror before Vlad can use the Shadow of Fear against us!" He lowered his finger and cleared his throat. "Or against the rest of you, anyway. I have nothing to fear from it, of course."

"Sure thing, Cue Ball," Jack mumbled, light-headed and facing Dojo's green scales beneath him. He would be a lot more excited to see Omi's bluff get called if he didn't have his own fear to dread. It was one thing to face Raimundo in his nightmares; what would happen if Vlad brought that fear to life? Would his own teammate turn on him, right out in the open where all the other monks would see?

When Dojo drifted to the lantern room atop the lighthouse, they found one of the glass windows already broken and gone, and they reached the opening just in time to watch Vlad pluck a decorative mirror off the wall. Clay jumped inside, stood tall, and said, "Alright, you no-good varmint, I reckon you oughta hand over that mirror for your own safety."

Eyebrows raising at Clay's spark of confidence, Kimiko smirked and jumped in after him. Jack and Omi followed with less enthusiasm, and when Raimundo landed in the room last, Omi ducked behind him. Kimiko strolled to stand next to Clay and said, "Better listen to the cowboy, big guy. We outnumber you five to one."

Like a pet bird, Wuya snickered from Vlad's shoulder. Vlad tucked the mirror under his armpit and said, "Oho, but it is you who should be afraid, not me!" He raised his other Shen Gong Wu high over his head. "Shadow of Fear!"

Purple fog oozed from the Shen Gong Wu, and Jack backed into the glass wall. The other monks flinched while the fog swirled around them, and then within the clearing smoke appeared a lopsided, humanoid figure. "Play with me, Kimiko..." Taller than anyone else in the room, a burned and battered doll stepped into the light and reached out.

"Tamochika?" Kimiko stumbled backward. "No, it can't be!"

Another figure crept out of the fog: a large, wrinkly woman with nails that doubled the length of her fingers. "Come and give your granny a kiss, my lil Clayey-wayey! How 'bout a lil pinch on the cheeky?"

"Granny Lily!" The color drained from Clay's face as he stepped back. "I couldn't feel my cheek for a month the last time you-!" His granny grabbed him by the shoulders, and he wailed in terror.

"M-maybe it will not be here," Omi muttered to himself, backing toward the center of the room to avoid Clay's and Kimiko's manifestations. "Maybe it has gone away." He bumped into something large and fluffy. He spun around, and sure enough, an enormous squirrel bared its buck teeth to shriek down at him.

While the squirrel grabbed Omi by the ankles and dragged him screaming across the room, Jack rushed for the broken window. He slammed his palm against the button on his chest, and his trusty old helipack whirred to life. Blades popped out of the device on his back and spun above his head, lifting him into the air as he jumped out the window.

Drifting far enough from the lighthouse to avoid contact with the purple fog, he twirled back around and watched the others attempt and fail to flee in the crowded glass space. He couldn't even bring himself to laugh at how stupid his teammate's fears were, not when he had come so close to encountering his own.

"Nice try, Jack," a wicked voice murmured behind him. "But I'm the Dragon of Wind, remember?" Jack squawked and spun around again, and Raimundo floated calmly in the air, twirling a bloody knife through his fingers. "That's the worst part, isn't it?"

Jack lifted his fists. "D-don't make me bust you up, Beta Br-" Raimundo slammed into him, knocking the rest of his sentence out of his lungs, and the two sailed across the sky and crashed into the lighthouse roof. Jack slid against the shingles, and when he came to a stop, Raimundo grabbed him by the throat. Jack flailed like a beached salmon, and Raimundo's teeth flashed in a vicious grin-

The two heard the sound of shoes scraping against shingles, and then something smashed into Raimundo with the force of an enraged rottweiler. Jack was thrown onto his side, and when he sat up and gasped for air, a second Raimundo crouched between him and the first.

While Jack tried to generate enough oxygen to squeak in surprise, the new Raimundo snarled at the other, "Fight someone your own size, you freak."

Jack's head whipped back and forth while he tried to tell the two teens apart. Both wore the same hostile scowl and the same white hoodie, but the Raimundo further away had his hood over his head, and the closer one's hood rested on his shoulders. The hooded Raimundo had a knife, but Jack knew the real one possessed several, so that didn't narrow things down, either.

The hooded Raimundo stalked to the side, eyes still trained on Jack. "Come on, Jack. We all know you're going to blab to someone at some point. You really think I'm going to let that happen?"

"You don't get to threaten him!" The other Raimundo lunged at his duplicate and shoved him down onto the rooftop. The two grappled, Jack lost track of which was which, and then one of them landed a flying kick against the other's skull. The knife dropped, and the hooded Raimundo crouched on his hands and knees, gripping his own head. The other Raimundo glared at him in pure disgust. "He's right about us, you know. You're not special."

He kicked the hooded Raimundo in the face again, knocking him onto his back. Lips curled back in a hateful sneer, he stomped down on the duplicate's nose and hissed, "You think you're helping people? Look around, edgelord; the closest person you have to a real friend is terrified of you, and you're not even worth the space you're taking up in his head!"

Jack scrambled to his feet. "H-hey, back off!"

Despite what had to be a smashed nose, the hooded Raimundo showed no sign of injury. He kicked and scraped his fingernails across shingles, glaring at Jack and snapping his teeth like a wild animal. The other Raimundo grabbed him by the hair and slammed his head against the roof, hissing, "You're no better than all those monsters you fight in Rio, and you deserve the same fate they got." Jack stumbled toward the two, and the standing Raimundo lifted the other by the shirt and snarled into his face, "You're no hero. You're empty and alone and pathetic. I hate you."

"I said, BACK OFF!" Jack ran the last few steps, and though he had no Monkey Staff, no weapons, and no talent, he jumped into a spinning kick and somehow managed to connect his foot to Raimundo's head. He might as well have kicked a tree for all the damage he did. While the standing and recently kicked Raimundo turned to gape at him, Jack fell on his butt, sprang back up, and said, "You're supposed to be my fear, so your fight's with me, got it, punk?"

The hooded Raimundo's eyes bulged, and the other Raimundo dropped him. When he landed on the shingles, the hooded Raimundo vanished in a puff of purple smoke. The two remaining teens dropped their gaze to where the conjured fear had disappeared, and after Jack remembered how to pick up his jaw, he looked back at Raimundo and said, "Wait, you're the real one?"

Raimundo's fingers twitched in front of his chest while he straightened his back. Voice small, he asked, "You... you couldn't tell?" He ducked his head and turned away from Jack. "S-sorry, I guess I kinda... lose my temper around people I don't like."

Jack blinked at him. "But the only people up here were me and..." He gestured vaguely to the spot where the nightmare Raimundo had disintegrated.

Raimundo spun back around, eyes suddenly wild and furious. Jack squeaked again, but Raimundo charged past him and sprang off the lighthouse rooftop. "Wh-?" Jack trotted after him and peeked down over the edge. Though Jack could still hear the rest of his teammates fighting and/or fleeing their fears right below him, Vlad had escaped their notice and was gleefully retreating out the front door of the lighthouse, nothing more than a tiny, jogging dot in Jack's vision.

Jack flipped on his helipack and dropped down after Raimundo, who swirled and flew right at Vlad. In a gust of wind, Raimundo's hand lashed out like a falcon's talons and snatched the Reversing Mirror under Vlad's armpit. Vlad yelped, the two twisted over the dirt, and when Raimundo finally dug his shoes into the ground to stop, he and Vlad both had the Reversing Mirror in their grip.

"Alright, Vlad, you had your fun," said Raimundo through gritted teeth. "Now you either give up the Reversing Mirror, or you leave in one piece. I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown. My Mask of Rio against your Monkey Staff."

Vlad stammered, "I have Fist of Tebigong."

Raimundo's voice was low. "You're wagering the Monkey Staff."

"O-oh, okay."

"The game is Flashlight Tag." Raimundo pointed up at the rotating beam of light overhead. "First one caught in the light loses. Let's go: Xiaolin Showdown!"

The lighthouse burst into hundreds of stone pieces, expanding across the darkening horizon and freeing the beam of light in the center. Jack, Omi, Kimiko, Clay, and Dojo all landed on the cliff shore. When they peered up, Raimundo stood on a floating clump of brick, and like the four monks below him, he wore his red Xiaolin robes.

"Gong Yi Tampai!" he and Vlad shouted.

While the two sprang into action overhead, Omi, Kimiko, and Clay sank the ground, panting for air. "Whoa nelly," Clay said, wiping sweat off his forehead. "I haven't been trapped with my Granny Lily that long since my last Thanksgiving."

Kimiko tugged her fingers through her hair, yanking out tangles. "I had no idea some stupid childhood doll would freak me out so bad."

"It's only a squirrel." Omi rocked back and forth with his arms around his knees. "Just a giant, toothy, disease-ridden squirrel..."

Dojo clambered onto Clay's hat and gave a few sympathetic nods before turning his attention to Jack. "How did you fare, kiddo? You and Raimundo ran off before I could see either of your fears."

Kimiko snapped out of her haunted expression to send an irked one at Jack. "Wait, you bailed on us again?"

"Like you three weren't trying to do the same thing," said Dojo with an amused smile. Kimiko blushed, and she avoided eye contact.

"U-uh." Jack scratched at his arm. "I did okay? Raimundo kinda helped me out and fought him- Uh, I mean, my fear just kinda poofed into smoke after a bit."

"Really?" Dojo's fuzzy eyebrows lifted up. "You beat it? Great job, Jack!"

Jack coughed. "I mean, I didn't beat it. Raimundo did."

Dojo shook his head. "Nope, no one else can make your fear vanish like that. That was all you, buster. You must have faced it and challenged it until you weren't afraid anymore." He tapped a clawed finger against the brim of Clay's hat, gesturing at the others. "You could give these three some tips on bravery."

Jack blushed, but before he could respond, they heard a loud scream from above. They spun around just in time to watch Raimundo throw Vlad off his rock and into the beam of light. In just their short conversation, the Xiaolin Showdown was already over.

The lighthouse shrank back down to its original size, and Vlad landed in the dirt with a grunt. Wuya swirled around him and screeched, "You are an embarrassment to evil everywhere! That's the last time I let Pandabubba hire my henchman. Time to take matters into my own hands!" She swooped out of sight, leaving Vlad to shuffle away in defeat.

Raimundo drifted down to land with the Reversing Mirror, Mask of Rio, and Monkey Staff in hand. The other monks cheered and rushed to their comrade. Raimundo flinched and went still before Clay slapped him on the back in congratulations. Kimiko offered him a high five, which he accepted with a half-hearted smile, and Omi demanded, "How did you fight your fear, Raimundo? Jack says you battled with his, so where did yours go?"

Raimundo passed the Reversing Mirror and Mask of Rio over to Dojo. "Uh, mine never showed up. I didn't really sleep that night, so I guess Vlad couldn't get into my dreams."

Kimiko rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Do you ever sleep, Rai?"

Raimundo rubbed at the dark marking under his eyes. "Sleep? I think I've heard of that. Is it some kind of food?" Kimiko and Clay chuckled. Omi opened his mouth, looking ready to explain in detail what exactly sleep was, but Raimundo strolled past the group and approached Jack. Holding out the Monkey Staff, he said, "Here you go, dude."

Heat rushed to Jack's face, and his heart did some odd dancing that he probably needed to see a doctor about. Clay scratched at his hair and asked, "How come you didn't have Vlad wager the Shadow of Fear, partner? It wouldn't have worked on you, so we could have gotten it back no problem, right?"

Raimundo's timid gaze at Jack flickered down. "Oh. Yeah, that would have been smarter, I guess. Sorry."

Dojo shrugged. "Eh, you kids need to learn to learn how to face your fears anyway. We'll call it a character building exercise."

"Well, I definitely know why Raimundo wanted Jack's favorite Wu back," said Kimiko, meeting Raimundo's puzzled look with a knowing smirk. "But are you sure it's a good idea? Jack kinda messed up with the Monkey Staff last time."

"H-hey, now." Jack stepped closer to Raimundo and plucked the Monkey Staff out of his loose grip. "I'll do better with it next time." Hugging the Shen Gong Wu to his chest, he gave Raimundo a shy smile and said, "Besides, everyone deserves another chance, right, Raimundo?"

This time it was Raimundo's turn to blush. "I, u-uh, yeah."

Kimiko snorted, and while Dojo jumped and expanded to full size, she flicked at Clay's hat and asked, "You sure you want to double our wager, big guy?"

Clay only rolled his eyes in response, leaving Jack to ask, "What wager?" Kimiko whistled innocently, climbed onto Dojo, and didn't answer. The boys followed her, and though Raimundo still took his place in the back, he sat a little closer to the group, cheeks and ears still as red as Jack's hair.


	19. Chapter 19

"Jump! No, no, green button! Red button attacks; you gotta dodge-"

While Kimiko gave rapid-fire instructions, Clay hunched over her little handheld Goo Zombies video game. She had been offering to let him play for about a year, but Clay had never been much of a gamer growing up and had never understood the appeal. After her Xiaolin Showdown, she had made the offer once more, and he finally decided to give it a go. If nothing else, he enjoyed Kimiko's company. However, he was starting to learn that he did not enjoy video games at all.

"Hold on, watch your health bar," Kimiko said, pointing at the screen. "Go get the battery over there, no, at the car, see? Wait, not that way. Jump, green button-"

"I hit the green button," Clay protested, voice low and frustrated. Kimiko's game console was obviously designed for a younger audience; its buttons were so small that Clay's fingers kept pressing more than one at once. "I'm throwin' the hat, but it keeps missing-"

Kimiko shifted onto her knees so she could lean against Clay and watch over his shoulder. "You have to use the L button to aim, it's on top right there-"

Clay frantically started mashing buttons, and his avatar jumped when he wanted it to duck. A swarm of zombies blasted him with goo, and the words GAME OVER flashed across the screen. While the zombies ate his avatar alive in shockingly G-rated fashion, Clay let the console drop in his lap before he could throw it, and he rubbed at his eyes.

"Wanna try again?" Kimiko's hair brushed against his neck when she turned her head a bit to smile at him.

Clay waved a hand in defeat. "I think I got my fill."

Kimiko visibly deflated. "Was I bothering you? I was kinda side-seat driving, wasn't I? I can shut up if you want."

"Nah, it wasn't you." Clay picked up the console and passed it back to her. "I reckon my good ol' Texas fingers are just too big for the controls."

Kimiko snorted and shook her head. "Doubt it. You just need to practice. Maybe find some absolute focus."

Clay's ears turned pink; her cheeky smile was even prettier up close. Before he could stammer some type of suave response, Dojo slid into the room and hollered, "Cool it, lovebirds! We got a hot new Shen Gong Wu!"

* * *

"Maybe Mine Creeper," Kimiko said, drumming her fingers against her chin while Dojo soared over a deciduous forest. "You don't need speed for that one. It's a puzzle game. There's a laptop version of it, too, if you'd rather try a keyboard."

"I ain't really much for puzzles," mumbled Clay. "I'd rather kick down a door than pick a lock, y'know?"

Kimiko tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

Omi piped up from up front, "It sounds like Clay prefers simple solutions rather than complicated ones, and perhaps that applies to games as well?"

"Somethin' like that." Clay hunched a bit when he realized he was becoming the center of the team's attention.

"See," said Jack, leaning back to elbow Raimundo, "this is why he's the Alpha Brawn and you're not. He'd rather throw all that muscle and weight around to solve his problems."

Raimundo rolled his eyes, and Clay hunched a bit more. He wasn't sure why he couldn't take Jack's statement as a compliment. He had always been the biggest kid among his peers, a fact in which his father had always been extremely proud. ("Ain't no one messin' with my boy! Just like his ol' man!") He knew that having a lot of muscle had its benefits; he only had to watch Jack Spicer attempt something athletic to ever doubt otherwise.

"Speaking of muscle and weight," said Dojo, voice uneasy while he peered down, "we've got unwelcome company."

Below, a tremendous, crimson red creature hobbled ankle-deep in a crystal blue lake. Swinging its fists like an angry toddler, it bellowed and roared gibberish while it kicked around in the water, soaking what seemed to be some type of loincloth or diaper below its belly.

Kimiko wrinkled her nose. "What is that?"

Omi leaned so far to the side that he nearly slipped from Dojo's back. "Is that a cyclops? Can anyone see its face? Ooh, I have heard stories of such ferocious creatures!"

The monster swung around, revealing a single eye over its nose and a mouth with mismatched teeth. Hovering like a wasp near its ear, Wuya pointed one of her tendrils up at the monks and said, "Cyclops, get rid of those pests!"

Making what could only be described as a deep babbling noise, Cyclops ran at Dojo, swinging its arms like it could swat the dragon from the sky. Dojo dodged easily and landed at the shore. While the monks sprang down from his back, he said, "Haven't seen a cyclops in a few centuries. Careful, kiddies: they're dumber than a brick wall and even tougher to take down."

"Where's the Wu?" asked Raimundo, knees bent and fists raised while Cyclops barreled toward them.

Dojo squinted his eyes. "Try the lake-"

Looking like he wanted literally any excuse in the world to avoid facing an opponent so massive, Jack flipped on his helipack and yelped, "I'm on it!" He buzzed into the air, Dojo swirled out of the way, and Cyclops stomped onto shore.

Omi's dots flared, and he yelled, "Water!" Bouncing off a tree trunk, he sprang at Cyclops and landed a swift kick at its knee. Cyclops did not notice; it lifted its foot high and stomped at Raimundo, who scrambled out of the way. While Omi delivered a flurry of punches at Cyclops' belly and elbow, the monster chased Raimundo across the shoreline, trying to squish him underfoot and completely ignoring the smallest monk. In the distance, Jack flipped his helipack off and dropped into the lake.

Kimiko pulled the Tangle Web Comb from her hair and called, "Tangle Web Comb! Fire!" Glowing tendrils burst from the comb at her command, and with a swing of her arm, they flew at Cyclops and wrapped white-hot around its leg. Cyclops wailed, but the attack barely stopped it. With an angry kick, Cyclops yanked Kimiko and sent her rolling across the rocky shore.

While Kimiko clambered to her hands and knees and rubbed at her bruised nose, Wuya said with a wicked grin, "I should have known that a classic monster would be more useful than Pandabubba's pathetic cronies. There is much to be said for tradition."

"Earth!" Clay charged past Kimiko and landed a punch directly into Cyclops' calf. The monster didn't flinch or even acknowledge his presence; it gawked at Wuya instead, distracting by her bragging. Clay stumbled back and cradled his hand for a moment. "Phew, Dojo wasn't kiddin' about that brick wall!"

"Excellent job, Cyclops," Wuya said, tone somehow more respectful than it had ever been to Pandabubba. "Now get the Ju-Ju Flytrap!"

Cyclops bobbed its head, nearly throwing off Omi, who still clambered around on its red skin like an ant. When Cyclops spun around and stamped back into the lake, Omi was flung into shallow water. Raimundo hollered, "Jack! Jack, he's heading your way-"

From the lake's center, Jack broke the surface with the Ju-Ju Flytrap held high. "Got it! The big oaf didn't see it right- Uh-" He yelped and flailed his arms in the cascade of waves kicked up from Cyclop's approach, and before his helipack could sputter back to life, Cyclops plucked him out of the water. Oblivious to Jack's screaming, Cyclops pinched the Ju-Ju Flytrap out of his grip, dangled him knee-high, and kicked him like a wad of paper across the lake.

The wind that sent Raimundo flying after Jack was as strong as a raging storm. Before Jack could smack into a tree at terminal velocity, Raimundo swooped and caught him. When they swerved back around and landed next to the others again, Jack shivered in his arms, wiped wet hair out of his own eyes, and gave a weak thumbs up. "Nice catch."

Raimundo looked way too angry to notice Jack's compliment, much less set him back down. He glared up at Cyclops and snapped, "You're in for it now, ugly!"

When the five warriors clustered together, Cyclops reared its head back. It dropped its gaze back down, and a beam of indigo energy blasted from its eyeball, throwing the shrieking monks back into the woods surrounding the lake. Twitching from the aftershocks, no one could move until long after the Cyclops and Wuya had retreated.

Gritting his teeth, Clay finally managed to sit up and say, "And I thought my Cousin Buford was big."

* * *

The flight back home was quieter than prior ones; after all, there was no individual to blame or comfort this round. As Omi dejectedly admitted, "Their failure had been a team effort." Dojo's efforts to point out that the Ju-Ju Flytrap was no huge loss fell on deaf ears. While the dragon finally landed in the stone courtyard, Omi stood on his back and declared, "We will have to stand together to defeat the evil one-eyed one!"

"You're a tough little guy, Omi," said Kimiko, hopping down after the boys to let Dojo shrink, "but face it: the cyclops isn't exactly in your weight class." Meanwhile, Jack shed the helipack and inspected it, all while Raimundo silently stood near him.

"If only I was big!" Omi stretched to his full height and then kicked straight up for good measure. "Then no cyclops could defeat me!"

Master Fung stepped out of the temple and approached the monks with hands folded. "Ah, but strength is not measured by one's size, but rather, by the size of one's strength." With mere a flick of his finger, he sent Omi flying backward into the dirt.

Watching Omi drop with an unimpressed snort, Jack drummed his fingers on his hips and said, "So basically, if you cut all the extra words out of that proverb, you're saying, 'Strength is measured by strength'?"

"Ah, got it," said Raimundo. The two teens made brief eye contact and snickered. It took an angry glare from Master Fung to shut them back up.

After the monks split their separate ways into the temple to lick their metaphorical wounds, Clay strolled out toward the temple gardens, trying to shrug off their defeat. No one was seriously hurt, and like Dojo said, they had only lost one Shen Gong Wu. They had dealt with worse before. He had absolutely no reason to feel so personally frustrated about the battle's outcome.

Still, after half an hour of tai chi and meditation, Clay still had a bit of a twitch in his jaw. In the courtyard nearby, he could hear Omi's shrill voice babbling about stretching and eating his way into becoming "bigger." Clay remembered he had a pretty sizable protein shake somewhere in his room; maybe Omi would want to give that a shot.

"You seem troubled, young monk."

From his seat under the cherry tree, Clay glanced around and tipped his hat back to look up at Master Monk Chase, who settled two sparring sticks against his shoulder and continued, "For a monk as collected and focused as you, I find that unusual. What is on your mind?"

"Ah, nothin' much." Clay heaved himself to his feet and gave Master Monk Chase a quick bow. "Just clearin' my head, that's all. Thinkin' about helpin' Omi with his project."

"Hmm, yes." To his credit, Master Monk Chase did not roll his eyes. Instead he chose to smile fondly. "His plan to become larger to combat Cyclops. What do you think of that idea?"

"Me?" Clay scratched at his hair, shuffling his hat a bit. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I value your opinion."

"Oh." Clay ducked his head. Under the elder's steady, attentive gaze, he shrugged and said, "I dunno. The kid's got a lot of bright ideas; I don't wanna squash 'em. But I know he ain't gonna gain weight all that fast, and it wouldn't be too good for him..." Master Monk Chase nodded thoughtfully, and Clay continued, "Plus, I'm 'bout as big as they get, and I didn't land a dent in Cyclops, so I ain't sure how Omi would be able to do it, though, uh," He finished his train of thought with a shrug, "I'm sure he could figure somethin'."

"Correct on all accounts," said Master Monk Chase. "Cyclops is far too massive for Omi or any monk to defeat through brute force. Strategy and wit shall serve you far better."

Clay nodded and kept his gaze low. "So you reckon I should let the others figure it out, then? I can just stay outta the way."

Master Monk Chase did not answer immediately, prompting Clay to glance back up. His teacher stared back at him with a prominent frown, and before Clay could think to apologize for whatever offensive thing he had said, Master Monk Chase held out one of his sparring sticks. When Clay hesitantly took it, Master Monk Chase asked, "Why do you want your teammates to do all the work? You never struck me as lazy."

Clay flinched and stepped back. "I don't! A-and I'm not!" Holding the sparring stick close to his chest, he dropped his gaze back to the ground. "But, y'know, I'm kinda the big guy 'round these parts. I'm real good at bein' big and strong. But now this Cyclops fella is bigger and stronger. I reckon that means I'm pretty useless, right?"

"Not at all." Master Monk Chase scooped up his other sparring stick and tapped Clay's with the end of it. "It is not the strongest opponent who wins, but the strongest willed. How about a sparring match to demonstrate?"

Clay almost protested; it would certainly take more than a strong breeze to knock Master Monk Chase down, but his frame was still more slender than Clay's. Still, Clay knew better than to insult his teacher with any suggestion of frailty. Taking a deep breath, he squared his shoulders and bent his knees. When he swung, Master Monk Chase blocked it without flinching. Clay tried a side step and swiped again, only with the same result. After a third swing and a third block, Clay huffed and said, "I hope you don't take this the wrong way, Master Chase, but you're a lot stronger than you look."

Master Monk Chase chuckled, and for a moment, he almost looked smug. When Clay lunged again, he blocked and said with a smile, "Master Fung has a saying: strength is not measured by size-"

"But by the size of one's strength." Clay blushed when he realized he had interrupted the elder, but when Master Monk Chase seemed unperturbed, he swung again and clarified, "He said somethin' earlier. Jack was joshin' him about it."

"What do you think it means?"

"U-uh, well." Clay paused his attacks and straightened his back. "I guess the obvious way to look at it is 'bout how someone could be real strong, even if they aren't big enough to look it." He put a knuckle to his lips while he pondered. "It could also be 'bout what you were sayin' with willpower: whoever wants to win most is most likely to do it. Then that'd mean that there's a real correlation between physical strength and inner strength. So in the proverb, the first strength is the physical one, and the second is the inner one, which would get rid o' the redundancy Jack was teasin' about earlier..."

He peeked back up, and Master Monk Chase was beaming. "You never cease to amaze me with your intelligence, Clay."

"Sh-shucks." Red as a ripe tomato, Clay ducked his head again.

"Am I correct in guessing that you are unused to fighting an opponent stronger and larger than yourself?" When Clay nodded, Master Monk Chase mimicked the gesture, lowered his stick, and took a few steps back. "In that case, I will show you how to use your opponents' strength against them. In fact, I will teach you a move I invented myself for such an occasion. I save it for my most gifted students."

Clay's cheeks were so heated, he expected steam to come out of his ears. "I definitely ain't gifted..."

"Regardless." Chase lowered into another fighting stance. "The next time you see Cyclops, you can certainly allow the other monks to take the spotlight. I know Omi especially is eager to prove himself. However, if the opportunity presents itself," He gave Clay a proud smirk, "I hope you give yourself the chance to shine."

* * *

A few days later, long after Omi had realized that the Reversing Mirror and the Changing Chopsticks could make him larger, gotten into an argument with Kimiko because they no longer had the Changing Chopsticks, and had brainstormed many fruitless ideas for how to find Pandabubba to get the Changing Chopsticks back, a new Shen Gong Wu finally revealed itself.

"The Lasso Boa Boa," said Dojo, dipping further down toward the Amazon Rainforest while the older monks peered over Omi's shoulder to study the ancient scroll. "When activated, it turns into a bone-crushing constrictor."

"A lasso that's part animal, huh?" Kimiko poked Clay in the rib. "Looks like it's your turn to get a favorite Wu, huh, cowboy?"

"A snake, though?" Raimundo raised an eyebrow from the back of the line. "Don't cowboys hate snakes?"

Clay almost considered calling out Raimundo for stereotyping, but instead he tilted his hat back and said, "Well, it ain't too good to have 'em around when you're ridin' since horses get spooked so easily, but snakes aren't too bad. They're good for the ecosystem and pretty much mind their own business. My great-aunt Karin had a lil _Heterodon nasicus_ who was a real cutie-"

A distant bellowing and babbling made the monks cease their chatter and turn back toward the rainforest. When Dojo landed near a waterfall, the humidity hit them like a wall of heat and sweat. Already feeling sticky, Clay clambered off the dragon and started the trek uphill with the others. Before too long, the ground started to shake from a set of massive feet stomping their way, and Cyclops burst through the trees like an overweight drunkard. With a crack, one of the tallest trees toppled down from the canopy.

Clay would never call himself much of a tree hugger (especially back in Texas or in front of his father), but watching some big red brute tearing down centuries-old jungle through sheer clumsiness was enough to chafe his chaps. He and the other monks bent their knees into battle stances, and Omi called, "Prepare for a most humiliating defeat, foul monster!"

"Just like last round, I presume?" said Wuya with a smirk, hovering near the top of Cyclops' head.

Cyclops threw back its head and let out a weird blithering noise that was possibly supposed to be laughter. Jack, who had ducked behind Raimundo at the first sign of battle, at least had the guts to peek out and mutter, "What is it with these bad guys and their stupid evil laughs? I could do better in my sleep." When Raimundo raised an eyebrow at him, he added defensively, "What? I'm just saying."

Cyclops barreled forward, and the monks scattered. Jack and Raimundo took to the air, and Jack called, "Monkey Staff!" He landed in a tree, furry and tailed. However, since he was now at their opponent's eye level, Cyclops blathered and reached out for him. Jack screeched and wrapped his arms around the tree, but before its fingers could touch him, something invisible slammed into Cyclops' single eye. Cyclops wailed, fell back, and slapped its hands over its face, and Raimundo appeared in the air with the Mask of Rio on his forehead. Kicking mucus off his shoe, he snarled, "You had that coming, you big oaf."

Cyclops dropped onto another big tree, and with a crunch, it smashed to the ground. Birds scattered from the branches, and Clay spotted a particularly limp snake dangling among them.

While Clay ran toward the tree, Omi and Kimiko lashed out at Cyclops with the Sword of the Storm and the Tangle Web Comb, but their efforts were no better than last time. Cyclops sat up and whimpered, rubbing its eye and completely ignoring the blasts of air and ropes yanking at its limbs. Wuya watched Clay's movement and spotted the snake. "Cyclops, quickly!" she said, her painted eyes widening in alarm. "Get the Shen Gong Wu!"

Cyclops sniffled and pouted, but when it blinked down at the tree, it spotted the limp snake swaying in the branches. With its curiosity piqued, it reached out and poked a finger in one of the loops just as Clay grabbed the snake by the neck. At contact, the Lasso Boa Boa glowed.

"Alright, Cyclops," said Clay, nearly needing to take his hat off to make eye contact that high, "I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown. I wager our Reversin' Mirror against your Ju-Ju Flytrap."

The other monks gathered behind him, weapons lowered. Omi looked especially crestfallen at losing the chance to fight Cyclops one on one, but Clay tried not to feel too guilty about that. Wuya drifted down and hissed, "Cyclops accepts your challenge."

For a moment, Clay seriously considered naming a game that Cyclops couldn't win; he had a feeling the brute wouldn't stand a chance at chess or trigonometry. Still, he had Texas honor, and he wasn't about to be unsportsmanlike. He pressed his hat back onto his head and said, "We'll keep it simple, then. Last one standin' is the winner. Let's go: Xiaolin Showdown! Gong Yi Tampai!"

The rainforest lurched and curved around them, tangling its branches and forming an enormous wooden dome. Clay remained steady while the dome rose high above the forest floor. He wished he had the chance to prepare with a few cleansing breaths like at training, but instead he had to brace himself immediately when Cyclops roared and threw its head back.

Clay leaped to the side just in time to avoid that blast of indigo energy from Cyclops' eye. The blast crashed into the woven wooden floor, leaving a gaping hole. Clay paused long enough to glance back at it, studying where the branches frayed. "Weak point," he muttered to himself with a nod.

Cyclops ran at him and swung its arm, and Clay wasn't quick enough to dodge getting smacked across the dome like a fly. With a yelp, he rolled and landed on his back. Cyclops followed and lifted a foot over him, and he managed to roll out of the way before he was squashed, but then the other foot lashed out and kicked him into the wall. With a winded cough, Clay dropped onto his hands and face. He heard Wuya yell from above, "Cyclops, use your Shen Gong Wu!"

With a wide, stupid grin, Cyclops bobbed its head in a nod and fiddled with the Ju-Ju Flytrap between its thumb and pointer finger. After a cacophony of gibberish, it pointed the Shen Gong Wu at Clay, who watched the gold trap open and release a horde of buzzing wasps.

"Whoa, nelly-" Clay clambered onto his knees and held out his own Shen Gong Wu. "Reversin' Mirror!"

The wasps scattered for a moment, but then they swapped targets and swarmed back toward Cyclops, who wore a puzzled frown when they reached its skin. It poked at the wasps against its belly and snickered, completely unaffected until one buzzed up into its eye. With an angry squeal, Cyclops clamped its fists and promptly punched itself in the face.

"I'm all for usin' his strength against him," said Clay, carefully side-stepping while Cyclops hollered and stumbled around the dome, "but that was a mite more straightforward than what I was thinkin'." His eyes flickered to the hole in the floor, where he could hear cracking at every stomp from Cyclops. Yanking a rope from his hat, Clay tied the non-lassoed end around his waist and let the rest hang loose around one shoulder. "This probably ain't the safest idea I ever had," he mumbled.

He looked up just as Cyclops blinked its eye back open and brought it down to focus on him. Taking that cleansing breath he'd wanted at the start, Clay braced his knees and waited. Cyclops charged, eye red and watering, and just when it lurched forward to flatten him, Clay hollered, "Repulse the Monkey!"

As Cyclops lunged, Clay rolled back and kicked out a foot, using Cyclops' own weight to throw it over his head and send it crashing upside down behind him. In the distance, he heard Jack and Omi crying out in shock and possibly some jealous outrage, but he had no time to dwell on it. Cyclops crashed right against that hole in the wood, and with a booming crunch, the entire floor shattered.

Clay whipped out his lasso and threw it right before he could drop, and the rope snagged at a branch near the top of the dome. While falling, he had a moment to inwardly panic at the realization that terminal velocity was about to snap his spine in half, but apparently Chosen Ones were tougher than he thought. The rope stopped his fall, his back didn't break, and Cyclops bellowed all the way down into the forest abyss.

The rainforest unfolded, and Clay found himself back on the ground with the Reversing Mirror, Ju-Ju Flytrap, and Lasso Boa Boa in hand. Cyclops dropped on its butt and looked ready to throw a temper tantrum, but before it could, Dojo swooped around the cheering monks, scooped them onto his back, and sailed back into the sky.

"Clay, you were amazing!" Kimiko gushed, wrapping her arms around his neck in a congratulatory hug. "Where did you learn Repulse the Monkey?"

Beaming and blushing, Clay stammered, "Well, I, uh-"

"That's Chase's signature move," said Jack from behind her, eyes round with awe and at least a tidbit of jealousy. "He said Omi and I aren't ready to learn it."

Up front, Omi pouted with his arms crossed and his shoulders hunched. "I am pleased that you triumphed over the Cyclops, Clay." Glancing back, his frown lifted a little, and he perked his head up. "Perhaps you could teach me- I mean, us- Repulse the Monkey?"

Clay nodded. "O-oh, definitely. I'm sure if I could figure it out, any o' you can."

"Come on, dude, don't sell yourself short," said Raimundo. "Any of us could have outsmarted or outraced Cyclops, but you gave him an even playing field and still won. That's pretty cool."

Clay's mouth dropped open at what might have been the first actual compliment he had ever heard out of Raimundo's mouth. Fiddling with the Lasso Boa Boa, he said, "Oh. Well, shucks. Thanks, partner."

As Dojo and the monks drifted out into the horizon, still gushing about Clay's success and leaving the Amazon rainforest far behind, a murder of nonnative crows watched them go. In a higher branch sat a red and silver parrot, black eyes focused on the dragon, until she and the crows stretched their wings and glided after him.


	20. Chapter 20

In the weeks following Clay's triumph over Cyclops, Omi waited restlessly for another Shen Gong Wu reveal. Every day that passed without one, he spent his free time tailing Master Monk Chase and Master Fung, pestering them with questions about rising to Xiaolin Apprentice. Neither of them gave answers that satisfied him, so when the five monks found themselves in Kimiko's room one night playing Go Fish, Omi glowered at his cards like they had personally ruined his day.

"Why the long face, lil partner?" asked Clay.

Omi forced his eyebrows to unclench. "Nothing. Do you have any sixes?"

Clay passed him a card. Kimiko leaned toward him a bit and asked, "Are you sure, Omi? You know you can talk to us if something's bothering you."

"Do you have any kings?" asked Omi, idly shuffling his cards.

Kimiko frowned. "Go fish."

"Don't take it personally, Kimiko," said Jack, casually leaning back to peek at Raimundo's cards. "Cue Ball gets cranky when he's jealous."

Omi's cheeks turned pink. "I am not jealous! It is just a card game!"

"You're jealous because all of us have been in Xiaolin Showdowns, and you haven't." With a smug grin, Jack bobbed his eyebrows up and down. "You're jealous because Chase has praised these three for winning their Showdowns, and he praised me for the SecuriJack, but what have you accomplished lately? Nothiiiiing."

Omi's cards bent under his clenching fingers, and he snapped, "I mastered Repulse the Monkey on my first try! You still have yet to figure it out!"

"Whoa, hey there, partners," Clay said, holding out his empty palm and waving it in appeasement. "We ain't competin' against each other; we're all on the same side. Omi, I'm sure you'll get your own Showdown soon. There are a bunch o' Wu out there and plenty o' time."

"Just you wait, Jack Spicer!" Omi pointed at the redhead, who casually rested his elbow on Raimundo's shoulder. "At my first Showdown, I will be so impressive, Master Monk Chase will promote me to Xiaolin Apprentice on the spot, and you will weep at your inadequacy!"

"Ooh, I'm so scared-" Jack's taunt came to an abrupt stop when a massive, booming crash shook the temple. In the quake, Jack latched his arms around Raimundo's neck and shrieked, "AUGH, I'M SCARED!"

After Kimiko's belongings stopped rattling, Clay jumped to his feet. "What in tarnation was that?" The five monks clambered out of Kimiko's room and ran outside. A plume of smoke rose from the temple courtyard, blocking the stars. Moving more cautiously, the monks peeked around the wall to the courtyard and slowly approached the enormous crater in the center.

Within the smoking crater sat a large, metallic, cylindrical machine. Omi glanced back at Jack, who still clung to Raimundo, and asked, "Did you do this? It looks like one of your robotic inventions."

"Are you kidding me?" asked Jack, sounding offended of all things. "That thing looks like aliens built it. Not my style at all!"

Just as Omi decided to take his word for it, the contraption started to make noises. The monks bent their knees, ready to battle or flee. Pieces of the device creaked and rotated, and a large, red orb poked out of the cylinder's end. Electric energy crackled around the orb and cast a beamed image into the air: a short, bald old man who turned toward them and said, "Greetings, Xiaolin Warriors."

Omi studied the man's long beard and fuzzy white eyebrows. "The old one with the extremely large head looks most familiar."

"Dude, that's you," said Raimundo, eyes round, "but way old!"

Omi's mouth fell open a bit, and his elder counterpart's voice was raspy when he continued, "I am Omi from the distant future, here to warn you that the world will soon be dominated by evil." He held up a thin, wrinkly finger. "But fear not! There is a way to prevent this disaster. The key to the survival of the universe as we know it lies in the future. Omi, you must find the Sands of Time before the sands of time themselves run out!" Old Omi started wheezing and coughing, and when he turned away from them, the image fizzled and disappeared.

After the smoke cleared and five hanging mouths finally managed to close, Raimundo frowned and asked, "So does everyone in the future talk in riddles, too?"

"YES!" crowed Omi, pumping his fists into the air. When the other four glanced down to gawk at him, he spun around and puffed out his chest. "My friends, it seems that I have been granted a quest, one so important that the fate of the entire universe lies in my hands alone! It seems that I am the only one deemed worthy of such a task by the wisest and greatest of all future Xiaolin Warriors: me!"

Jack's eyes rolled into his skull when he sighed. Clay scratched his chin and said, "Yeah, uh, those are some pretty high stakes there, lil partner."

"I'm pretty sure that's not what Old Omi meant," said Kimiko, crossing her arms.

"He named me." Omi pressed a thumb to his chest. "He did not say that 'we' have to find the Sands of Time; he said that 'Omi' has to find the Sands of Time!"

"Which are what, exactly?" asked Raimundo.

"The Sands of Time is a most powerful Shen Gong Wu," said an older voice behind them, and they spun around while Master Fung stepped out of the shadows with the ancient scroll in hand. "They allow the user to travel through time and alter time. The Heylin side will undoubtedly be eager to get it and change not only their future, but ours as well."

"With that kind o' power, they could rewrite all the world's history," said Clay, eyes widening while he pulled his hat off his head.

Unblinking, Raimundo ran his hands through his hair. "They could go back and prevent any of us from existing."

"They could bring Blackbeard or Attila the Hun to the present day and make us fight them!" Jack's face turned even paler, and he gasped in horror before he added, "Or my first grade teacher, Mrs. Cornhaven!"

After a pregnant pause, Raimundo nodded in support. "Yeah, they could do that, too."

"Not to worry, my friends." Omi strutted past them and started heading back toward the temple doors. "Once I obtain total victory and secure the Sands of Time for the Xiaolin side, I will prevent any of those disasters from occurring. Old Me said so. You may rest easily tonight; Dojo and I shall set off in the morning to meet my destiny!"

"Wait," said Kimiko, "are you saying you're going alone?"

"Of course not. I just told you, Dojo is coming with me."

Master Fung's eyebrows furrowed. "Omi, that is not a wise course of action."

Omi waved a hand dismissively. "Of course it is! I am following instructions by the wisest person I will ever know: myself!"

Master Fung frowned, and his eyes narrowed. Clay set his hat back on his head and put his hands on his hips. "Now hang on there, lil partner. We're a team. We're supposed to get these things done together, 'specially somethin' this important—"

Omi spun around, gripped at the open doorway, and stomped his foot. "But Old Me said that this is my quest! It is my turn to get a Shen Gong Wu, and you are all jealous because none of yours are as important as mine-"

Master Fung's voice was sharp as a blade when he said, "Omi, cease this tantrum at once."

Omi deflated like a popped balloon. Jack had to grab onto both Raimundo and Clay to keep from falling over in shock. Omi resisted the instinct to shrink against the doorway while Master Fung walked toward him and said, "I have not raised you in this temple to behave so irresponsibly. This Shen Gong Wu is far too important for you to waste time seeking attention like an arrogant child. You will leave immediately with Dojo, you will take all of your fellow monks with you, and you will work as a team to get the Sands of Time. Is that understood?"

Feeling about two inches tall, Omi said, "Yes, Master Fung."

* * *

Jack's laughter had started almost the second Master Fung was out of earshot, and hours later, his lungs were still going strong. While Dojo drifted over the Sahara, Omi hunched up front and scowled into the ancient scroll, and Jack finally had enough breath to call at him from behind, "What's wrong, Favorite Child? Couldn't handle your first chewing out by the old man?"

"Lay off, Jack," said Raimundo quietly.

"Oh, come on!" Jack crossed his arms and scoffed. "Master Fung has been fussing at me from the day I walked into the temple, while Baby Prodigy over there got away with everything! The tide was bound to turn sooner or later."

Omi grumbled into the scroll, "Upon Master Fung's insistence, I am allowing the four of you to come with me. If you insist on doing nothing but mock your fellow warrior, Jack Spicer, then I am certain I can convince him of your uselessness."

"Master Fung wanted us workin' together," said Clay, whose patience had worn quite thin since missing his bedtime. "You two ain't tomcats, so there ain't any point in fightin' like 'em. Let's just work on findin' the Sands of Time so we can mosey on back to the ranch."

"Wouldn't it be a lot easier if we waited until the Sands of Time reveals itself?" asked Dojo, still groggy from his own shortened sleep.

"No!" Omi rolled up the scroll and clambered onto Dojo's head. "We have no time to lose! We must make sure the Sands of Time does not fall into Heylin hands. The universe is depending on me!"

To his credit, Dojo did not grumble. With red, dry eyes, he glided northward, and Omi remained on his head instead of scooting back to rejoin his fellow monks. He was certain they would be of no use to him anyway.

* * *

Master Monk Chase was easily the heaviest sleeper in the temple; fifteen centuries of sheer existence had a tendency to wear down even the most resilient of human souls. With that said, he still made a point to awaken long before the other temple dwellers. If for no other reason, his extensive hair care routine was time-consuming. He was certain that none of the other elders approved of his lone display of vanity, but he held infinite seniority over them, so they kept their mouths shut.

After getting dressed and enjoying his breakfast and tea alone, he glanced out of one of the round temple windows, through which the first rays of sun started to touch the mountains on the horizon. His eyebrow shifted up just a fraction; he could usually hear Omi or Raimundo shuffling around in their own rooms by now. The temple was quiet, far too quiet.

Chase set down his tea and quietly made his way to the young ones' bedrooms. Kimiko's room was empty, but the lantern at her ceiling was still lit. Bent playing cards littered her room in a chaotic circle; the monks had been playing, and they had left in a hurry. Strolling further down the hallway to peek into the other four rooms, Chase confirmed what he already knew: all five of his students were gone.

Chase, who absolutely loathed being left out of the loop on any occasion, took a quick cleansing breath. It would be ridiculous to assume the worst; just because his students were missing did not mean they had been kidnapped or injured. It was far more likely that a Shen Gong Wu had revealed itself while he slept. It was merely odd how his tiger instincts had not alerted him to its reveal.

Speaking of tiger instincts, something about the situation still left him on edge. Keeping his pace casual, he decided to walk outside and assay the temple perimeter. The vault remained untouched; Jack's robots continued to buzz around it, all unharmed. Chase passed through the vault's security measures and checked inside: five of their seven Shen Gong Wu were gone, one for each monk. Yes, they were definitely out hunting a new reveal.

When Chase nodded to himself and stepped back outside, he squinted at the outer temple walls, now lit by the morning sun. Two crows sat and stared at him, as unblinking and unmoving as the blue shingles beneath them. Chase took a few more steps and peered around; upon every roof around sat a crow, and the whole murder was watching him.

At the sound of footsteps, Chase's muscles coiled, but then Master Fung stepped out of the temple. He paused for only a moment, eyes flickering and taking in the sight of their avian guests, before he continued his stroll out past the porch to join Chase's side. Voice impassive, he said, "I trust you slept well?"

"I did," said Chase, voice low and even. "Where are the young monks?"

"Out," said Fung simply. "They are with Dojo, collecting a Shen Gong Wu."

Chase nodded. "Which one?"

Fung's mouth pressed into a thin line. "It is not important."

Chase winced; though he gave Master Fung credit for recognizing the Heylin members currently spying on them, dodging Chase's question was clumsy, and Hannibal Bean would certainly notice. "Very well," he murmured, and he nonchalantly resumed his stroll. Master Fung silently followed him, and the two ignored the crows completely.

However, when the two stepped into the open courtyard, Chase was wound so tightly that the unexpected sight of a massive crater snapped his calm facade like a dead twig. Still smoking faintly, the crater held a large, bizarre machine unlike any of Jack's robotic inventions. Voice a bit louder than he'd intended, Chase pointed and asked, "What is that?"

"By my understanding," said Master Fung, "it is a message from the future."

Chase trotted to the contraption, and the crow sitting atop it flew away with a caw. He leaned and poked at some of the bolts and buttons on its side. "I am not sensing any Xiaolin or Heylin magic from it; how could it have traveled here? What is its message?"

"The message appeared to be from an older version of Omi." Master Fung approached Chase, leaned closer, and spoke too softly for the crows to hear, "He warned that the world will soon be dominated by evil, and the only way to prevent it is for Omi to find the Sands of Time."

Chase's hands went still on the device, and he whipped his head around. "The Sands of Time?" he repeated, voice still too loud.

This time it was Master Fung's turn to wince while he glanced around at the crows still watching. "I-"

"Where are my students?" Chase asked, whirling to face the other elder. "Where did they go?"

"As I told you," Master Fung said slowly, "they are out getting a Shen Gong Wu."

"Which one?" demanded Chase.

Master Fung blinked at him. "The... the Sands of Time. I thought I made that clear. Are you feeling unwell?"

"That can't be!" Chase grabbed at his own hair and yanked it. "If they are looking for the Sands of Time, then why aren't they here?"

Confusion was not a feeling often expressed by Master Fung, and yet the elder was speechless. Chase stormed past him and raced to the rock garden. Passing the pyramid decoration, he paced around the temple well and shooed away the mass of crows hovering near it.

By the time Master Fung caught up to him, Chase's eyes were wide and a little too wild for the elder's liking. Before Master Fung could speak, Chase stormed up to him and said, "The Sands of Time is here! It's at the temple! I watched Dashi hide it myself! Hannibal Bean has been itching to get his grubby little tentacles on it for 1,500 years. He wants to rewrite our pasts and make me his evil little minion- Dashi too, probably-"

Gaze flitting back and forth at their surrounding eavesdroppers, Master Fung gritted his teeth. "So you know where it is? Perhaps we could get it ourselves and hide it elsewhere, after we dismiss our, uh, visitors."

Chase sank his back against the well's circular rock wall. "Dashi made certain that no one could access the Sands of Time until it reveals itself, not even I. Otherwise I would have hidden it somewhere else long ago. Even if Hannibal Bean never knew it was here, there is someone else on the Heylin side who does." With a worn, ironic grin, he said, "You see, I'm not the only one who watched Dashi hide it."

"Hello, old friend."

In an instant, the murder of crows rose in a whirlwind of black feathers. From his seat on the ground, Master Monk Chase slowly turned to glare up at the massive, shirtless figure crouched upon the nearest roof, running his fingers up the blade of his spear.

"Where are your students, Chase?" asked Guan with a sneer. "Off on a wild goose chase? Or did they flee at the first hint of my arrival?"

"You certainly are one to talk about fleeing," murmured Chase, "since you have refused to face me directly after that stunt you and Hannibal Bean pulled in South America last decade."

"Ah yes, the one with the reapers." Guan pressed the tip of his spear into a roof shingle to heave himself to his feet, and then he casually jumped down into the garden. "Quite a casualty count. Must have been embarrassing for you."

"Speaking of embarrassing," said Chase, not moving from his seat even while Master Fung backed away and out of range, "I cannot imagine how devastated your younger self would be if he saw you now, shamelessly beating up children over something as unimportant as the Jetbootsu. Did your honor drown in that magic pea soup of yours?"

"Those children are Xiaolin Warriors." Guan strolled between Chase and Master Fung and started slowly circling the well. "Though they must not be very good; you and I were Wudai Warriors at their ages, and you have yet to make them apprentices."

"They are not yet ready." Chase wrinkled his nose at Guan. "Unlike you, they have no Heylin potion to cheat their way to power. They are earning it through talent and wit. I would not expect you to relate to that concept."

"And meanwhile, here you are," Guan let his spear swing around to point at Chase, its blade inches from his throat, "once a mighty Xiaolin Dragon, now a babysitter. I have powers you could only dream of possessing, and you are merely an old, tired shell of a monk who is only alive due to an oath he made long ago. You may pretend to be high and mighty, Chase, but I know you would jump at the opportunity to trade places with me."

Chase smirked and almost chuckled. "You are only here because Hannibal Bean ordered you to get the Sands of Time. If you succeeded- which you won't- you would pass it to him without any fuss. You may look tough on the outside, Guan, but Hannibal Bean has turned a strong, stubborn warrior into a meek little servant for a vegetable. I would rather die than be in your shoes."

Guan's lip curled back in his scowl. "Believe me, Chase, I can arrange that."

At his words, he lunged.


	21. Chapter 21

While the hours stretched on, Dojo continued to aimlessly glide over Egypt. The sun set, the night passed, and the sun rose once again, all while Omi stubbornly sat upon Dojo's head and waited for his destiny to arrive. Dojo insisted that Dashi hid the Sands of Time "in Egypt, not Europe," and though the denial was oddly specific, no one had reason to doubt him.

"Are we there yet?" whined Jack for the hundredth time.

"Feels like we've been flyin' around for days," said Clay, lying flat on his back across Dojo's scales. "I'm feelin' more tired than a..." His sentence drifted into nothing; he was too tired to end it.

"You kids need your rest," said Dojo, eyes barely open. "How about we get a fresh start tomorrow and wander around aimlessly looking for the Shen Gong... Wu..."

Omi glanced up from the ancient scroll when the wind started to tug at his clothes. The clouds started to slowly rise, and the ground approached- They were sinking from the sky. He rolled up the scroll and whacked Dojo's head with it. "Dojo, are you falling asleep?"

Dojo's body practically yanked itself out of the descent. Eyes wide and bloodshot, the dragon blabbered, "J-just five more minutes, Mommy! I don't wanna go to school!"

"Okay, that's it!" Jack sat up and started clambering to his feet. "I've been a real good sport over the years, what with all the undulating and swirling, but I'm drawing a line in the sand. It's one thing to ride Dojo on a normal day, but there is no way I'm sticking around when he's about to pass out!"

"I don't say this often," said Kimiko, "but Jack's got a point."

Omi rolled his eyes. "I woke him up. He's fine. Right, Dojo?"

"I ate the dog's homework," said Dojo, blinking rapidly.

Clay shook his head and studied the landmarks below. "Omi, partner, I know you're eager to get ahold o' this Wu, but even if it were safe for the rest of us, it ain't fair to make Dojo keep flyin' around like this without any sleep."

Omi spun around to finally face the other riders. "Then what do you suggest we do? We have no Shen Gong Wu designed for travel; Dojo is our only swift method of transportation."

"Faster than a jet plane." Dojo blinked back at them with a listless grin.

"No offense, partner," said Clay, "but there ain't any point in flyin' around until we know where we're goin'. What if the Wu reveals itself far away, and Dojo's too tired to get us there? I reckon we oughta touch down for a while and let everyone get a lil shuteye."

"Yeah, I'm with Clay on this one," said Kimiko with a yawn.

"Me, too!" Jack clung to Dojo but still looked ready to switch on his helipack and hop off at any second. "Especially the part where we get off the barely conscious dragon! That's majority vote, Cue Ball."

Muscles coiled, Omi said, "We are not voting! This is my quest; none of you are even supposed to be here-"

The wind shifted upward again. Gliding down, Dojo said with slurred words, "Sorry, pal, going with the crowd on this one."

Despite Omi's loud and increasingly high-pitched protests, Dojo landed in the city of Cairo. Kimiko led the group to the nearest hotel, all while Clay physically dragged Omi along like a misbehaving puppy. When they reached the hotel room, Jack squealed and dashed inside. "Beds! Actual beds! I haven't slept on anything but those stupid mats for years! Oh, beds, how I missed you so!" He face-planted into the nearest one and fell asleep almost instantly.

While Clay and Kimiko sorted out sleeping arrangements, part of which involved rolling Jack onto one side of his bed to make room for Raimundo, Omi sat near the door and sulked. It wasn't fair; he had been perfectly willing to take on this quest alone. If his teammates were so concerned about getting sleep, they could have stayed home. Why did they have to come along if they were going to do nothing but slow him down?

For a brief moment, Kimiko and Clay bickered over whether she should have an entire bed to herself. ("Clay, I don't need that much space-" "Ladies get their own beds, it ain't right to make you share-" "I am not letting you sleep on the floor when there's a king size bed right here-") Kimiko ended the argument by physically pushing Clay onto the bed and threatening to sit on him until he fell asleep. Within minutes, the only noise left in the room was snoring.

Omi drummed a finger on his knee, stood, and then crept for the door. Clutching the Sword of the Storm, he stepped out of the room and trotted his way back to the stairs. If his friends could not be bothered to take their mission seriously, he would continue alone as he originally intended.

"So what's your plan here?"

Omi jumped and spun around. Raimundo leaned against the wall near their doorway, watching him with a raised eyebrow. Omi scowled and muttered, "I thought you fell asleep."

Raimundo smirked. "Sleep is for the weak."

Still backing toward the stairs, ready to bolt, Omi pointed and said, "If you plan on dragging me back into that room to waste valuable time, then you will not succeed. We cannot allow the Heylin side to get the Sands of Time; the world depends on my success-"

"Dude, I know." Raimundo pushed himself off the wall and strolled toward him. "I think you're right. Time travel is a game changer, man. It's harsh to tell Dojo to 'suck it up,' but we really can't be sleeping when something that important is about to show up."

Omi's mouth dropped open. "You agree with me?" He cleared his throat. "Ah. Good. Then you shall understand when I tell you it is for the best for you to return to the room and wait with the others. Old Omi assigned me this quest and no one else."

Raimundo's mouth pressed into a thin line, but he didn't roll his eyes like the others. "You shouldn't be wandering around a big city like this by yourself. And, uh... besides, how are you supposed to achieve triumph and glory and all that without an eyewitness?" His mouth curved into a mischievous grin.

Omi put a finger to his chin. "Hmm. Good point." Holding the door to the stairwell open, he said, "Very well, you may come along and observe if you wish."

"Cool beans." Raimundo followed Omi down the stairs and through the hotel lobby. The sun had not quite set in Cairo when they stepped outside, and Raimundo let Omi lead the way while they wandered vaguely through the tourist crowds and toward the Nile river. Folding his fingers behind his head, Raimundo asked, "So what are you gonna do with the Sands of Time when you get it?"

Omi paused and blinked up at him. "Put it in the vault?"

"Really?" Raimundo's eyebrows lifted. "You don't want to use it? I mean, I guess Master Fung and Master Monk Chase probably don't want us messing with time space continuum stuff, but like, if you could use it to do anything, what would you do?"

"Oh." Blinking another couple times, Omi resumed his stroll and put a finger to his lip while he thought. Beaming, he answered, "I suppose I would go into the future and see what kind of grand, heroic warrior I turn out to be!"

"Oh yeah?" asked Raimundo. "You wouldn't try to go to the past and change anything? Master Fung said we can go back and alter stuff if we want."

"Maybe so, but my past has led me to where I am now." Omi's casual walk shifted into more of a swagger. "I have no mistakes to fix; I am not the type to make mistakes."

"Heh. Speak for yourself." Raimundo's eyes turned murky and shifted to the stone pavement. "There's no way I'd go to the future. Probably won't like finding out if I'm dead or in jail or whatever. I'd rather go to the past, try to figure out what happened to my dad."

Omi had been about to ask exactly why a Xiaolin Warrior like Raimundo would land himself in jail, but the last part threw him off, and his topic changed. "Your father? Your sisters mentioned him."

Raimundo's fists pushed into his pockets. "Yeah. They said I was there with him when he died, but I don't remember it. A-and I know I was a really little kid and all, but what if I had something to do with it? I just," He grimaced and dipped his head, "I just want to know what happened, and if I have a chance to change it, I want to try. I'm a Xiaolin Dragon now. I could save him, I'm sure of it."

"You can!" Omi spun around and started walking backwards to give Raimundo his full attention. "After I rescue the universe and obtain the Sands of Time, you can use it to save your father, and his fate will no longer be sealed!"

Raimundo's eyes went round, and he stopped walking. "Dude, are you... are you sure? I mean, if I could go back and stop Os Anjos da Morte, it would fix everything, but I don't think Master Monk Chase will want us messing with the past, like-"

"Why not? I cannot think of any cause more honorable than rescuing your family from doom, and besides," Omi bounced on the soles of his feet, grinning, "even if Master Monk Chase does not approve, Jack Spicer never asks permission for anything, so why should we? I give you my word: as soon as I get the Sands of Time and finish my own adventure in the future, I shall make sure that you are the next in line to use it!"

Raimundo's answering grin lit his face, and Omi wasn't sure if he had ever seen the teen with a sincere smile before. In fact, in the entire year that they'd known each other, he wasn't sure if he and Raimundo had ever had a single conversation alone. He honestly didn't know much about Raimundo at all.

Ears turning a bit pink, Omi ducked his head and admitted, "Besides, your adventure sounds more noble than mine..."

Raimundo snorted and shook his head. "Dude, believe me: my name and the word 'noble' will never belong in the same sentence."

Twiddling his fingers, Omi muttered, "Do you think...?" With a gulp, he spun around and started walking again. "Never mind."

Following at his side, Raimundo asked, "What's up?"

"I don't know." Omi kept his gaze glued to the concrete sidewalk for a while, until he finally broke the silence and asked, "Why did Master Fung get so upset with me? I want to get the Sands of Time, and I want to do it alone." He looked up at Raimundo. "I should not need anyone's help to get it, right? What kind of warrior would I be if I cannot accomplish my own quest? Does he not want me to succeed?"

"I think maybe he's worried that you're doing stuff for the wrong reasons?" When Omi's eyes grew round, Raimundo shrugged and held his palms up. "I mean, I'm definitely not a shining example of a good person or anything, but I think a real warrior would do stuff to help people, not for glory and attention. So like, are you trying to get the Sands of Time to keep the universe safe, or do you just want people to think you're awesome?"

Face pink, Omi blurted out, "Of course I want to keep the universe safe!" He bit at his lip before anything else could come out, and he avoided eye contact.

After an awkward, silent minute of strolling next to the river, Raimundo reached over and tapped the top of Omi's head with his knuckles. "Well, if it matters, I think you're pretty awesome either way."

Omi almost stumbled while he cleared his throat and squared his shoulders. "W-well, of course, thank you! I do my best-"

"Kids! There you are!" The two boys spun and looked up, and Dojo passed over their heads and swirled to land his serpentine body around them. Eyes still a little bloodshot, he said, "Hop on! The Sands of Time just went active! I think I'm just recharged enough to get there, but we gotta go now!" From atop the dragon's back, Clay reached out, plucked Omi off the ground, and set him in front of the line. Jack grabbed Raimundo's hand and pulled him up, and the group took off to fly back the way they came.

* * *

Master Monk Chase slammed into a stone wall and landed on his hands and knees. He had no time to even wince in pain; he jumped back up to dodge a swipe of Guan's spear. For two days, he and Guan had dueled on the Xiaolin temple grounds, neither sleeping nor eating. All of the elder monks had fled except for Master Fung, who had stationed himself at the temple vault. The Jackbot security system lay scattered in shambles across the courtyard, as did the time-traveling contraption that had started this entire mess.

Crows circled overhead like buzzards waiting for a meal. Chase's lungs ached for a pause in the fight, but he didn't dare grant it. He swiped a kick at Guan's ankles, but Guan thrust his spear into the dirt, inches from Chase's head, and leaped clear over him. When he landed and the two whirled around to face each other again, something in the air shifted, and the two warriors froze.

Chase's eyes widened, and Guan grinned. "Did you feel that? It seems like the Sands of Time has revealed itself." A new bird, a red and silver parrot, glided overhead, and Guan called, "Ying Ying, it's in the well!"

The parrot swirled, and though Chase didn't hear the tell-tale sound of Hannibal Bean's wicked laughter, he lifted the nearest rock and threw it at Ying Ying. She squawked and dove, and while the rock sailed over her, she disappeared into the temple well. Chase bolted into a run, but Guan cut him off, blocking him with the spear and swinging it toward his chest. Chase was faster; throwing his weight backwards, he ducked under the spear and kicked Guan's shin. The Heylin opponent grunted when he dropped to one knee, and Chase had to spring away to dodge the incoming punch.

When Chase almost stumbled upon landing, Guan sneered, "Is your age catching up to you, Chase? You fight like an old man."

"At least I don't look like one," Chase spat back. "Wasn't that soup supposed to grant you eternal youth? Better ask your master for a refund, Chin Wrinkles."

The two lunged at each other once more in a flurry of kicks and punches, and just like the last dozen times they had done so, neither triumphed over the other. Chase sprang away and rushed toward the well once again, but he was too late: Ying Ying soared into the air, clutching a golden hourglass. Her belly faced Chase, who couldn't see if she bore her rider, who still hadn't announced his presence-

An enormous shadow passed over them, but Chase could only watch Ying Ying, who cackled while she swooped around the courtyard. Guan grinned in triumph, and Master Fung rushed to the battlefield and said, "Chase, what-?"

"Sword of the Storm!"

A whirlwind wrapped around Ying Ying, who shrieked as the hourglass was ripped from her talons and flung into the flowerbeds. Dojo dropped down from the sky, and the five Xiaolin Warriors sprang from his back. Landing in the center of the battlefield, they faced Guan in unified battle stances, and Omi pointed and shouted, "Prepare for a second round, Heylin Warlord Guan! You will not succeed against me today!"

Guan let his spear spin in his fingers before he pointed it at the group. "Isn't this precious, Chase? Your ducklings have arrived to rescue you."

"Young monks," said Chase, crouching, "stay away from Guan, get the Sands of Time-"

"Don't need to tell me twice!" said Jack, flipping on his helipack and taking to the air. Ying Ying dove down and pounced on Jack's face, who screamed and flailed his hands while he twisted in the sky.

When Raimundo took off after Jack to rescue him from the parrot, Guan charged at the other three. Omi and Kimiko sprang away, but Clay stood his ground, and he caught Guan's fists in his hands. Skidding back a few feet, Clay gritted his teeth while Guan bent over him and said, "I see you're getting stronger, almost as strong as I am. You're turning more like me every day."

"I'm nothin' like you," Clay spat. "I'm just keepin' ya still."

As Guan's brows furrowed, Kimiko lunged onto his back and hollered, "Tangle Web Comb!" The comb's tendrils latched around Guan's arms, snaking around his torso while he lurched back.

Meanwhile, Omi took off into the gardens. Overhead, he heard Jack's helipack buzz and sputter while he and Raimundo grappled with the loud, squawking parrot. Kicking and pushing aside the knee-high flowers, he frantically searched for a flash of anything metallic. Behind him, he heard Guan roar, and then Clay and Kimiko yelped, but he didn't look up quickly enough-

"Omi, look out!"

He heard a bizarre clinking, rattling noise, like a chain suddenly springing to life, and something solid collided with him from his right side. He rolled into the flowerbeds, scraping across the stems and branches, and when he sat up on his hands and knees, Master Monk Chase crouched next to him, head hanging down. The head of Guan's spear lay underneath him, stained scarlet.

Omi's voice came out in an octave too high, "Master Monk Chase?" His teacher grimaced and pressed a hand to his side, where a dark stain started spreading across his pale blue robes. The spear's head was attached to a long chain, and it stretched across the battlefield all the way to Guan, who smirked at the two. He pressed a button on the spear, and its blade retreated across the battlefield, leaving a trail of blood.

"Chase!" Jack wailed.

Omi staggered to his feet. "M-Master Chase, n-no!"

Master Monk Chase pushed himself up with a shaking arm. "Never mind me, Omi. Get the Sands of Time and run!"

A glimmer at the ground caught Omi's eye, and while Guan stomped toward them, he turned and lunged at the source. His hand slapped down on the shimmering hourglass, and Guan's massive hand slammed onto his own. Biting back a squeak of pain, Omi gripped onto the Shen Gong Wu while Guan lifted it up with him. As Omi dangled in the air and the Sands of Time glowed over him, Guan snarled, "It looks like our battle just ended, didn't it, little duckling?"

Baring his teeth, Omi kicked into empty space and said, "Our battle is just beginning, Warlord Guan! I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown!"

Jack dropped down behind him and rushed to Master Monk Chase. Raimundo landed on an undamaged chunk of roof, face twisted in a barely restrained grimace. Kimiko's eyes flashed from Chase to Guan, fingers twitching like she was ready to strangle the latter. Approaching the flowerbeds, Clay cupped his hands around his mouth and hollered, "Here ya go, lil partner! You got this!"

"Kick his butt, Omi!" Jack yelled.

Omi gulped to quell his heart pounding against his ribcage, and he held up his sword. "I wager my Sword of the Storm against your- your-" He blinked up at Guan. "What do you have?"

"I will battle without Shen Gong Wu." Guan turned and spat into the dirt. "I do not need any extra weapons to crush you like an ant, nor will I show as much mercy as I did last time. I will break every one of your bones just to see the look on your teacher's face." He cast a wicked smirk down at Chase, the only person on the battlefield who now looked absolutely terrified.

Omi's gaze flickered down to the wound in Chase's side, but it couldn't linger long. He shifted his eyes up to the Sands of Time, and though he could hear his fellow monks shouting encouragement and cheers, their voices grew distant in the glow. This was it: his chance to prove his worth, exceed the other monks, and triumph against their greatest foe. If he lost now, the whole universe would plunge into darkness, and Raimundo would never get a chance to rescue his father. He had to win-

No, they had to win.

"I-if you are so confident, Warlord Guan," he said, dipping his head down a fraction to lock eyes with his opponent, "then how about we raise the stakes? Instead of one Shen Gong Wu, I wager five, and you have to fight us all for them!"

Guan frowned, and after a few gasps from his teammates, Omi heard Kimiko ask, "Can we do that? Join the Showdown?"

"That'd be five against one," said Clay with a conflicted frown. Atop his hat, Dojo pursed his lips and pulled out a small red book.

"Fine by me," snarled Raimundo.

"Here we go!" Dojo tapped at one of the pages in his book. "According to the official rule book, it's called the Triple Dog Dare. Every member of both parties can compete, but the outnumbering party has to wager every Shen Gong Wu they have."

"Phew!" Clay leaned back with his hands on his hips. "You sure, lil partner? All seven of our Wu? Those're some high stakes."

"If we lose the Sands of Time," said Omi, "then none of the other Shen Gong Wu will matter. If Guan and Hannibal Bean harness the ability to travel through time, then the world will plunge into chaos, no matter how many other Shen Gong Wu we possess."

"Correct," said Guan. Pulling Omi closer to his face, he scowled. "I have no interest in your other Shen Gong Wu, so why should I accept these new terms?"

Omi blinked up at him with an expression that anyone but Jack would have interpreted as innocent. "Do you not think you can defeat us all at once? Master Monk Chase made it sound like you are a mighty Heylin Warrior, but if you think five pre-apprentices are too much, we can fight more fairly if you wish. I apologize for overestimating you."

Guan's eye twitched. After a second of stunned silence, the other monks' voices returned at full force, far louder and flooding the courtyard.

"OHHHHH, need some ice for that burn, you giant bald weenie?"

"All bark and no bite, huh, Guan? If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen!"

"Aww, shucks, Guan, we didn't mean to scare ya! We can let you fight us one at a time if that's the best you can do!"

"Guan's a chicken! Bawk bawk bawk baaaaaaawk!"

"ENOUGH!" Guan shook the Sands of Time, rattling Omi along with it until the others went quiet. "You have brought an excellent point to my attention, Dragon of Water: why defeat only one of you when I can tear every one of you spoiled brats into pieces all at once? I accept your challenge. First to get the Sands of Time wins the match."

The other four monks rushed to Omi's side, and while Master Monk Chase looked on with wide eyes and gritted teeth, the Xiaolin Warriors and Guan all shouted, "Let's go: Xiaolin Showdown!"

The remaining shambles of the Xiaolin Temple erupted into an expanding battlefield. The scattered shingles and bricks fused, rose, and morphed into a blue-stoned mountain, atop which hovered the golden hourglass. Down at the base, the five monks' clothes morphed into their red Xiaolin robes, and as Ying Ying and the crows glided in circles overhead, Guan and the monks shouted, "Gong Yi Tampai!"

"Mask of Rio!" Raimundo pressed the colorful mask to his face and disappeared. Jack tapped the button on his chest, and his helipack buzzed to life once more, sending him into the air. Omi and Kimiko took off running up the mountaintop, and Guan barreled after them.

Still at the base, Clay swung his Shen Gong Wu overhead and hollered, "Lasso Boa Boa!" The rope glowed, and at his toss, it lashed out like a cobra and snagged Guan's ankle. Knocking some stones aside, Guan nearly stumbled, but as Clay pulled, Guan gripped the rope and pulled back. In a swift lurch, he yanked Clay clear off the ground and threw him at Jack. The two boys barely had time to yell in alarm before they collided and smashed into the stones.

Guan resumed his charge back up the mountain. Clambering onto a boulder, Omi turned to face him, but before Guan could even lift his spear, Raimundo dropped from the sky and slammed his heel into Guan's neck. The Heylin warrior dropped with a pained grunt. When Raimundo landed in front of him, a meaty hand lashed out and grabbed his calf. Glowering, Guan said, "I have heard such terrible things about you, Dragon of Wind. Perhaps Clay is not the one destined for the Heylin side-"

Kimiko slid down the mountainside and sprang to a stop in front of Guan. "Raimundo, duck!" When Raimundo dropped onto his back, she lifted her Shen Gong Wu from her hair and called, "Tangle Web Comb, Fire!"

Glowing, white-hot tendrils sprang from the comb and wrapped around Guan's bare torso. With an actual yell of pain, Guan released Raimundo and staggered back, grabbing at the fiery ropes. Kimiko gritted her teeth, continuing to step forward as the tendrils snaked around Guan's limbs, but then Guan let out a bellowing roar.

Raimundo, Kimiko, and Omi recoiled while spikes sprouted from Guan's back. The reddish brown exoskeleton encased his body, and his fists swelled into the giant lobster claws. Through the burning white ropes, his monstrous scarlet eyes glared down at the young monks, and his unhinged jaw opened with another, mountain-shaking roar.

Omi called, "Sword of the Storm!" His lucky Shen Gong Wu spun in his fingers, and a massive gust of wind bore down upon Guan, who barely budged under the currents. With a pinch of his claws, he snapped the tendrils from the Tangle Web Comb and yanked them off his body. Raimundo grabbed Kimiko around the waist and leaped right before Guan could snag them both from their spots. Hissing and growling, the Heylin beast stomped toward Omi, who bent his knees and spun the Sword of the Storm as fast as he could. Unfazed by the winds, Guan reached the boulder and reached for him.

A high-pitched monkey screech echoed over the mountainside right before Jack Spicer landed on Guan's face. Fuzzy and angry, Jack screamed and clawed at Guan's eyes before the massive beast managed to snag him by the tail, yank him away, and hold him upside down in the air. Guan's voice was hoarse and garbled when he hissed, "Aren't you the coward who ran and hid the last time we met?"

Jack bared his fanged teeth in a grin when he answered, "Are you kidding? Didn't Dojo tell you about me beating the Shadow of Fear? I'm the braveone of the group!" With another monkey scream, he swung his body closer and punched Guan right in the teeth.

Guan bellowed and slammed Jack into the rocks. When Raimundo dropped down next to Omi, Kimiko squirmed out of his arms. Jack screamed when Guan swung him and threw him again. Raimundo sprang to the edge of the boulder and yelled, "Jack, hold on-!"

"Raimundo, wait!" Omi cried, rushing forward and grabbing the teen's red sleeve. Glancing back, Omi pointed down at Guan and Jack and said, "Kimiko, go!" Kimiko sprang from the boulder and charged down the slope. Spinning Raimundo as best he could to face him, Omi held up the Sword of the Storm and said, "Take this."

Raimundo, who had just looked ready to lash out at Omi for slowing him down, froze and dropped his mouth open. "What? Dude, this is your lucky sword, it's your showdown-"

"Yes, the Sword of the Storm is my favorite." Omi spared a quick peek up the mountain; Clay was nearly at the top. All they had to do was buy him more time. Omi pressed the Sword of the Storm's handle into Raimundo's open palm. "But you were right about me: I was after the Sands of Time for the wrong reasons. I wanted to prove that I was as good as my fellow monks, if not better. But none of that matters. We need to win. You are the Dragon of Wind; the Sword of the Storm will be more useful in your hands than mine. Wield it now, and help me defeat Guan!"

With round eyes, Raimundo let his fingers close around the sword's handle, and his mouth curved up into another smile. Pulling his other Shen Gong Wu down over his eyes, he called, "Mask of Rio!" When he vanished, Omi sprang down from the boulder and dashed down at Guan.

Fighting Kimiko's Tangle Web Comb, Guan threw Jack into the dirt a final time. With a swipe of his tail, he knocked Omi and Kimiko aside and charged up the mountain. Up near the top, Clay panted, clambered to his feet, and slowly turned to face the rapidly approaching monster. He dug his boots into the dirt, bent his knees, and took a deep breath. Roaring, Guan lunged with his jaw open and his claws outstretched.

"REPULSE THE MONKEY!"

When Guan landed, Clay rolled with the hit and kicked from underneath, throwing Guan past the Sands of Time and far down the other side of the peak. Skidding, Guan dug his claws into the stone to stop his descent. Bug-eyed, he said, "You? You know Repulse the Monkey?"

"And you don't." Clay tipped his hat down. "So I reckon you and I don't have as much in common as you thought." Omi dashed past the cowboy, rushing toward the top, and Clay hollered, "Get 'em, lil partner!"

Kicking aside loose stones and dirt, Guan scrambled to his feet, pushing himself up with his claws. Before he could take a single step, Raimundo appeared in front of him, framed by the glow of the Sands of Time. Tossing the Mask of Rio aside, Raimundo swung his other Shen Gong Wu and yelled, "Sword of the Storm, WIND!"

A blast of wind cascaded down the mountain with the force of an avalanche, slamming into Guan and flinging him off the battlefield. With a screech, the Heylin beast tumbled out of sight. Reaching the peak, Omi stretched out his hand and grabbed onto the Sands of Time.

The mountain disintegrated back into the shattered remnants of the various Xiaolin temple buildings, and Guan crashed into one of the only walls still standing. It crumpled and buried him in stone. Ying Ying and the crows scattered, leaving the monks where they stood triumphant in the gardens.

Amid the cheers, Omi held the Sands of Time close and peered around at his teammates. Jack sank to the ground immediately, bearing two black eyes and possibly missing some teeth. Raimundo crouched next to him, tense and alarmed until Jack gave him a weak thumbs up. Clay and Kimiko went quiet and rushed to either side of Master Monk Chase, who still had a palm pressed into his bleeding wound when he sat back onto his knees. Like Jack, he brushed aside their concern and said, "Do not worry about me, young monks. If it were that easy for Guan to kill me, he would have done it by now."

Bowing his head a bit, Omi approached his teacher and said, "I am sorry, Master Chase. My failure to sense danger is what caused your injury, and my pride nearly doomed us all. I tried to redeem myself by inviting my teammates into the Showdown, but perhaps that was a coward's solution. Perhaps I should have faced Guan alone, so I could prove my worth to you-"

With a single, swift step, Master Monk Chase closed the distance between himself and Omi, and with his free hand, he pulled the smallest monk into a hug.

Omi's speech dissolved into a shocked stutter. Master Monk Chase held him close and said, "Omi, your actions today brought victory to our temple. My relief to see you unharmed pales only to the pride I feel for you and your fellow monks." Releasing Omi, who stumbled back with red ears and cheeks, the elder heaved himself to his feet. "Omi, Raimundo, Jack, Kimiko, and Clay, the five of you have triumphed over the Heylin forces and prevented a thousand years of darkness. Not only have you all proven your readiness to rise to Xiaolin Apprentice, you have all made it clear that I should have granted you that rank long ago."

The five monks gasped and beamed at each other. From the ground, Jack let out a weak, "Yaaaaaay..."

With a proud smile, Master Monk Chase turned to Master Fung. "If you would be so kind, Master Fung, would you please get five Xiaolin Apprentice sashes? I would find them myself, but I believe I need a trip to the infirmary."

With a nod and a smile of his own, Master Fung said, "Of course."

"Wait!" Omi threw his free hand into the air and waved the Sands of Time high. "Before anything else, I have a promise I need to keep!" Spinning to face Raimundo, he said, "B-but before I do that, there is someone I need to thank. Is that alright, Raimundo?"

With his thick eyebrows high, Raimundo said, "Uh. Yeah, sure?"

"Excellent!" Omi clasped the hourglass in both hands and called, "Sands of Time!"

In a flash of light, he disappeared. The remaining four monks and the two teachers blinked at the spot where he had just stood, and then Clay looked over at Raimundo and said, "So. Uh. Any idea where he just went?" Raimundo held his palms skyward and shrugged.

The group did not have to wonder long. In another flash, Omi reappeared with the Sands of Time still in hand, except he was not alone. A far older, wrinklier version of himself leaned on a cane at his side. Omi patted the old man's shoulder and said, "Everyone, meet Old Omi! We could not have won without him- I mean, me!"

From the dirt, Jack muttered, "Wow. Your ego was tamed for, like, a solid five seconds. That's gotta be a record."

Omi ignored him. "Old Omi, I wish to thank you for warning us of the impending danger! Though, I suppose doing so is what caused us to leave the temple and endanger it in the first place..." He pursed his lips a moment but recovered quickly. "Still! Your bones are old, but your Xiaolin heart is strong!"

Old Omi squinted around at the group. "Yes, thank you. I am certain you fought like a true warrior yourself." He paused, and when his nine dots glowed on his head, he frowned.

"I most certainly did!" said Omi. "But I suppose I have interrupted what you were doing in your timeline. Would you like for me to return you to the future, or would you like to stay awhile? I promised Raimundo a chance to use the Sands of Time himself, but I am certain that-"

"No." In a movement faster than anyone could have expected from someone so shriveled, Old Omi snatched the hourglass out of his younger counterpart's hands. "I am sorry, Omi, but I cannot allow the Sands of Time to remain here for another moment. It is far too dangerous."

"What?" Omi furrowed his eyebrows. "I do not understand. What danger? We defeated Guan, and the Heylin forces have retreated-"

"Yes," Old Omi bowed his head before he locked eyes with Omi, "but there is a traitor in your midst." In a single, blinding flash, Old Omi vanished with the Sands of Time, leaving Omi to gaze around at his four teammates.


	22. Chapter 22

The monks' promotions to Xiaolin Apprentices should have been celebrated, but Old Omi's cryptic warning and disappearance left the five unnerved. Clay and Kimiko recovered the quickest, deciding in the politest terms possible that Old Omi was far too senile to really know what he was talking about. When Jack limped past Clay's room later that evening, the two were cheerfully looking up trivia games on Kimiko's computer.

Jack peeked into Omi's room and found the small monk sitting with his legs crossed and holding his head between his palms. Jack scratched at a bandage around his wrist and asked, "You alright, Chrome Dome?"

Omi peeked over at him. "Jack? I thought you went to the infirmary."

Jack shrugged, and the movement immediately made him wince. "Yeah, they let me out after they bandaged me up. They said nothing's broken; I'm just gonna be sore for a while." He glanced around at the various bruises and bandages around his body and pursed his lips. "And for the record, I am never fighting Guan one on one like that again."

"Probably wise," Omi said before he put his head back on his palms again. "Jack, you don't think any of our teammates would turn evil, do you?"

Jack didn't know it was possible to choke on empty air, and yet he still managed. "H-huh? Nah, no way! I'm with Clay and Kim on this one; Old Omi was just kinda... doddery, you know? With that 'old people' smell-"

Omi shook his head. "He took the Sands of Time into the future to get it away from someone. He said there was a traitor nearby. That means he could not be talking about Guan, Hannibal Bean, or any of our Heylin foes. Someone currently on our side is going to betray us." He put a finger to his lip. "The only person I can rule out is myself."

Jack scratched at a bandage wrapped around his arm. "Come on, man. We all just got promoted to apprentices; we're gonna start mastering elemental attacks soon! Why stress about something that probably isn't gonna happen when we could, I dunno, have a party or something?"

"It might be Kimiko," Omi murmured, squinting in the direction of the other monks' rooms, from which they could hear Clay and Kimiko shouting trivia answers. "She loses her temper the most frequently. Then again, Clay admits to being alone with Guan at his ranch; perhaps he is hiding something. Raimundo can be quite secretive as well." He raised an eyebrow at Jack. "You spend the most time with Raimundo; does he strike you as evil?"

Jack's dismissive laugh was higher pitched than a chicken's squawk. "Raimundo? Whaaat? Nahhh, he's a cool dude! Why would he hurt random people? He doesn't have any violent tendencies or anything!"

Omi blinked. "I never suggested he did." His eyes narrowed again. "You seem quite distressed about this conversation. Perhaps you are hiding something."

"Me?" Jack's voice, if possible, crept even higher. "Come on, Cue Ball! You've known me your whole life; I'm an open book!"

"And you would never join the Heylin forces, correct?"

"Me? Evil? As if!" Jack coughed, and after a moment's thought, he drummed his fingers on his hip. "I mean, at least I'd have a better evil laugh than all those posers, and I could wear a trench coat unironically. That'd be cool..." At the look on Omi's face, he hastily added, "But I wouldn't! Can you imagine? Me, my robots, and my genius against all four of you, big mighty Xiaolin Dragons?" He pursed his lips again. "Actually, that'd probably be an even fight."

Omi scowled. "If you were attempting to set my mind at ease, Jack, you are not succeeding."

"I didn't really expect to, Cue Ball. You stress way too much already." With a chuckle, Jack strolled over and drummed on Omi's head until the monk shoved him out of the room. Still laughing, Jack called, "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to write out battle strategies for how I could hypothetically kick all your butts and take over the world," At Omi's glare, he held up a finger, "but won't!"

* * *

Though Guan had definitely given Jack quite a beating in the Showdown, the redhead bounced back faster than any of the others had expected. Within a few days, all the bandages were gone, and the bruises had turned faint. Chase's recovery was slower, but he still managed to escape the infirmary long enough to begin the apprentices' first lessons.

"Young monks, now that all five of you have risen to the next level," he said, keeping his gait steady despite the wrapped, stitched gash on his side, "you are ready to begin combining your Shen Gong Wu with your elemental powers." He sent a proud smirk toward two of the students. "Though I have heard that Kimiko and Raimundo are already quite capable of doing so."

Kimiko and Raimundo were polite enough to smile humbly at the praise, but Jack held up his hand and asked, "So, can we combine our elements with any Shen Gong Wu we want? Like, how can I combine Metal with the Monkey Staff?"

"That is a question only you can answer, Jack." Master Monk Chase stopped his stroll to face them. "Dashi designed the Shen Gong Wu to respond to their wielders' intent. You are limited only by your own imagination. If you can think of a way to combine your element with a Shen Gong Wu's ability, then the Shen Gong Wu will make it so."

Jack's gaze drifted off into space, and he tapped a pointer finger to his chin. "Hmm, cyborg monkey..."

"Keep in mind, young Dragons," said Master Monk Chase, "that the Shen Gong Wu are merely crutches. They will help draw out the elements already dwelling within you, but you will also learn to summon your powers without depending on any Shen Gong Wu at all. You will have the option to either invent a move of your own, or you can learn an attack already in the ancient scrolls."

Omi waved his hand over his head. "Like the fearsome Tsunami Strike-"

"Take a rain check on the lessons, kiddos," called Dojo, bounding onto Clay's head, "because we got a hot new Shen Gong Wu to find: the Zing Zombone!"

* * *

Though Jack spent most of their flight to Tokyo brainstorming how exactly he could transform into a cyborg monkey, along with the pros and cons of such, he couldn't help but notice that his teammate in the back seemed more miserable than usual. Glancing back, he finally asked, "You alright back there, Beta Brawn?"

Raimundo yawned and kept his gaze down. "I'm fine. Had some weird nightmares last night."

Jack bit his lip. Scooting back toward the other teen until he was close enough to whisper, he asked, "It's, uh, it's not because of that stuff Old Omi said, was it?"

"Nah." Raimundo shook his head. "The stuff from last night was the same as usual, except I think Pandabubba was there for some reason." He finally looked up and made eye contact. After studying the conflicted expression on Jack's face, he said, "Dude, if you're worried about me being the traitor-"

"I'm not!" said Jack, and the sincerity in his voice shocked him. Based on what he knew, his stab-happy teammate was the obvious number one suspect, but Jack could no longer bring himself to distrust him. And no, the fact that Raimundo's relieved smile made his knees weak did not make him biased at all.

The apprentices found the Zing Zombone at a dock near the edge of town. To their surprise and slight suspicion, they snatched it unopposed. Jack stuffed the weirdly slimy Shen Gong Wu into one of his many pockets before Dojo took off again. When they drifted past Tohomiko Electronics, a bronze skyscraper that Jack Spicer would recognize anywhere, Kimiko pointed it out and called, "Over there! That's my papa's building!"

Jack's thoughts about traitors and monkeys scattered from his brain like leaves in the wind. Practically jumping onto Clay's shoulder and knocking off his hat, he exclaimed, "Your dad is Toshiro Tohomiko, as in, Electronic Tech and Virtual Reality Billionaire Genius, Toshiro Tohomiko?"

Kimiko beamed back at them. "Yeah, he's super cool! He's working on the beta testing for Goo Zombies 5, but he's really excited about this new toy line he's developing." Noticing the boys' captivated attention, particularly how Jack looked ready to combust with glee, she added, "Do you guys want to meet him?"

Jack's answer was a long squeal. Raimundo scooted forward, passed Clay's hat back to him, and said, "We met Clay's dad, and you guys met my sisters. Sounds like it's Kimiko's turn for a family reunion!" Jack let out a cheer, and Dojo swirled downward to land at the base of the skyscraper.

After passing through security, at which Raimundo had to surrender at least three different pocketknives, Kimiko led the boys through a series of elevators. Jack bounced on the soles of his feet until the final door opened to a large, curved room with a platform in the center. Upon it stood a short, scruffy-haired man wearing a large headset over his eyes. Wires stretched from the ceiling down to the metal gloves on his hands while he grappled with an invisible opponent. With a final punch, he bowed and said, "Until we meet in battle again."

"Papa!" Kimiko ran to the platform.

Yanking off the gloves and headset, the man turned and beamed. "Kimiko! Konichiwa!" He jumped down from the platform and caught his daughter in a hug. "Welcome home!" Turning to the boys, he said, "These must be the famous Xiaolin Warriors. Kimiko has told me all about you. It is an honor to meet in person."

Dojo coughed and looked ready to interject, but Jack kicked him aside and shot out his hand. "It's an honor to meet you, too, Mr. Toho! I'm Jack Spicer, Xiaolin Boy Genius, big fan of your work- How long have you been developing virtual reality games? Is it true you came up with every major electronic toy upgrade in the business for the past ten years? How did you figure out how to put in 300 gigs into your robo-tyke toy because I've been trying to do that with a Maidbot I'm building-"

To his credit, Mr. Tohomiko was only startled for a second. With a delighted smile, he answered, "You sound like a clever young man, Spicer-san! My robo-tyke toy is still being perfected, and though I cannot give away all my secrets, I would be happy to give you all a tour of my facilities!"

Vibrating, Jack barely stopped himself from doing a happy little jig on the spot. While Mr. Tohomiko led the group back to the elevators, Raimundo gently elbowed his side and said, "I haven't seen you this happy since you first got your hands on the Monkey Staff."

"It's not every day you meet one of your heroes!" Jack answered with a grin.

His hero certainly did not disappoint. In every room of the factory, a new game or toy was being forged into reality. Boxes with oddly familiar panda logos passed by them on shipping carts. Mr. Tohomiko led them to a massive room where a production line of tiny humanoid androids drifted across conveyor belts. "This is our latest product: the U-bot! It is a small, personalized robot that takes on the personality and physical form of its owner."

"No way!" Jack gasped among the awed gasps of his teammates. With his manners long forgotten somewhere at the Xiaolin temple, he dashed down the stairs and rushed to the first U-bot his clammy hands could grab.

He heard small, light footsteps behind him, and apparently Omi's manners were lost with Jack's because he had grabbed a U-bot as well. "Greetings, I am Omi, the greatest Xiaolin Warrior ever!"

The robot parroted, "Omi is the greatest Xiaolin Warrior ever."

Jack sneered at Omi and halfheartedly tried to kick him. "Come on, Cue Ball, don't fill the robot's head with lies. You can't say you're the greatest when your best friend is a literal genius!" Holding up the U-bot standing on his palm, he said, "Isn't that right, U-bot?"

Right before his eyes, the robot's features shifted until a tiny, silver replica of Jack Spicer stood on his hand. The robot grinned and said, "That's right, Jack! No one's as awesome as everyone's favorite Xiaolin Boy Genius!"

While Jack's eyes bugged out of his head at the technical marvel before him, Omi's robot transformed too, and the tiny Omi-bot snapped back, "The only one who calls you a genius is you, Jack Spicer. Until we see some bite with that bark, you have nothing to brag about."

"Say that to my face, half-pint!" Jack's U-bot flailed its tiny arms. "Bring it!"

"I would advise against a duel between us," said Omi-bot, "for your own safety!"

Tiny Jack sprang from Jack's hand and pounced on Omi's robot. The two bounced onto the floor and grappled in what appeared to be a rather passionate slap fight. Raimundo, Clay, and Kimiko started giggling, but Omi was not as amused. With an unsettled frown, he grabbed both robots off the floor, pried them apart, and handed Jack's robot back to him.

"This is so cool!" Jack squealed. Hugging his miniature doppelganger, he gawked up at Kimiko's dad. "How did you get it to mimic me so fast? Did it scan me? What programs do you use? I've been trying to build a personality replica for years!" His robot climbed onto his shoulder and hugged him back, looking just as delighted with the situation as Jack was. With a tiny hand on his nose, Jack gave the biggest puppy eyes he could muster. "Can I... can I keep him?"

"Of course you can keep him, Spicer-san!" said Mr. Tohomiko. "In fact, I have U-bots for all of you!"

Raimundo, Kimiko, Clay, and even Dojo gasped and approached the conveyor belts. One by one, each of their U-bots transformed into small replicas, and at the sight of the other teenagers, Jack's U-bot said, "Ooh, nice, everyone's hot!" Jack shoved a pinky finger in his mouth to shut him up.

Mr. Tohomiko stepped next to Jack and said, "Spicer-san, Kimiko tells me that you also craft robotic technology. Perhaps I could show you some of my blueprints; I would be most honored to share ideas with a fellow inventor!"

Jack's mouth dropped open, and he nearly fainted on the spot with joy. "Y-yeah, yeah! And I can show you some of my stuff, too! I'm working on this project called a Chameleonbot- I actually had the idea years ago, but I just never had the time with chores and Wu and all- If you could give me any advice about the emotion chip I'm trying to figure out-"

He felt a little tug near his ankles, and he glanced down. Raimundo's U-bot had one hand on his pants leg and was looking up at him curiously. While Jack scooped him off the floor, Kimiko said with a giggle, "He made a beeline straight for you, Jack."

The real Raimundo trotted up to Jack and held a palm out. Blushing, he muttered, "I don't know why he did that."

"Favoritism?" offered Kimiko. Raimundo ignored her.

For a moment, Jack tilted U-Rai in his hands and scrutinized his features, wondering with a nervous pang just how closely the robot would mimic the original. However, instead of attempting to stab anyone, the little robot squirmed out of Jack's sweaty hands and clambered up his arm to sit next to U-Jack.

"Aww!" Jack reached up and passed Raimundo's robot back to him. "Gamma Brawn just can't resist my charm!"

Raimundo's face turned redder, and he ducked his head. "Gamma Brawn?"

"Greek alphabet, my dude. I'm trying to set a pattern." Jack scooped up U-Jack and let him spring onto Raimundo's arm to follow U-Rai, who seemed nervous and shy at the sudden attention.

Resting a hand on Kimiko's shoulder, Mr. Tohomiko spoke up, "Now, which of you hungry warriors wants a delicious soba snack?"

"Ah, snack," said Dojo, clutching his own U-Dojo close, "the most beautiful word in any language!" He and the monks followed Mr. Tohomiko to the door. Raimundo held U-Rai and U-Jack carefully, watching their awkward, flirty interactions with a baffled frown.

Jack was almost the last out the door, but before he could round the corner, he heard Omi call behind him, "Omi-bot, where are you going?" He peeked back in time to watch Omi dash through an entryway on the other side of the room labeled in both English and Japanese, "Restricted Section."

"Oh boy," said Jack. Turning and trotting after the smallest monk, he called, "Hold up, Chrome Dome! Learn to read!" Dashing into the room, he paused and gave an uneasy wave to the security camera spinning from the ceiling to face him. "Just passing through, don't mind me."

Filled to the ceiling with storage crates and with only a single light flickering from above, the hallway was far darker and creepier than any of the rooms Mr. Tohomiko had shown them earlier. Digging through his pockets for a flashlight, Jack let a few candy wrappers hit the floor and pulled out the Zing Zombone to move it out of his way. As he crept into the darkness, the little U-Omi waddled out from behind a box, but his owner was nowhere to be seen.

"Omi?" Jack found his little flashlight and felt around for the button. "C'mon, Cheese Ball, there's way too much irony in me telling you to follow the rules, this place is restricted-"

A weird, muffled noise from between stacks of crates reached his ears. He flicked the flashlight on and cast the beam into the dark. Dangling in the air, Omi kicked and struggled against the confines of the Third Arm Sash wrapped around his mouth and torso. His eyes widened at Jack, and he let out another muffled yell.

"Hey, wait a sec-" Jack took half a step forward, and then earsplitting pain against the back of his skull sent him dropping to his knees. The flashlight and the Zing Zombone fell from his hands when he gripped his head and pressed it to the ground. Blinking the dizzying stars out of his eyes, he managed to sit back up, and Pandabubba sneered down at him with the Fist of Tebigong in hand.

"Well, Wuya, it looks like your plan for revenge just got more interesting." Pandabubba bent down, picked something off the ground, and pointed it into Jack's face. "Zing Zombone!"

* * *

While Kimiko and her father shot ideas for Goo Zombies 5 back and forth with each other, Clay and Dojo listened politely, and Raimundo watched their robot counterparts wander around on Mr. Tohomiko's work table. U-Clay waddled up to their plates of half-eaten soba, tore off a piece of a napkin, and folded it up into a flower. He tottered back to U-Kimiko, who giggled when he offered it to her. U-Jack watched this exchange, snatched the flower out of U-Clay's hands, and ran away to hold it out for U-Rai, who stared at the flower and said in a flat, robotic voice, "That's gay, dude."

"Sure is, hot stuff!" said U-Jack, pressing the flower into U-Rai's face.

U-Rai began stuttering incoherently, and though he certainly couldn't blush, the real Raimundo's face was pink enough for both of them. He briefly wondered how rude it would be to point out to Mr. Tohomiko that the real Jack Spicer would never have any romantic inklings toward him, and therefore U-Jack had clearly been programmed incorrectly.

Shifting his gaze around the room and trying not to imagine the real Jack presenting him with a stolen romantic gesture, he noticed that Jack and Omi were still absent. He had watched them both duck back into the U-bot center, but he had figured they wouldn't be far behind. Before he could say anything, Clay voiced his concerns for him, "Hey Kim, do you reckon Omi and Jack mighta gotten lost on the way back?"

"Maybe," Kimiko said with a shrug, "but this is my dad's workplace, so it's not like they're in any danger. They'll find us eventually."

"I'll go track them down," said Raimundo, standing up. The Goo Zombies discussion was interesting, but watching the happy little robot couples made him queasy and nervous in a way he couldn't explain. He had to stretch his legs. "Be back in a bit."

The trek back through the hallways and past the various offices and crafting centers was quieter the second time around. He strolled past the elevator and took the stairs instead, eyes narrowing at the lack of employees or sound. When he reached the floor where he had last seen the missing monks, the ceiling panel lights started to buzz and flicker. Breathing slowly through his nose, Raimundo crept forward with a fist clenched and muscles tight.

The U-bot manufacturing room was silent. The conveyor belts were still, and the U-bots lay scattered and inactive. Raimundo's fingers grazed the safety rail as he sneaked down the stairs, and when a raspy, hissing laugh echoed through the room, he wrinkled his nose and said, "What are you up to now, Wuya?"

The purple, masked ghost drifted down from the ceiling and grinned at him. "It's been too long, hasn't it, Raimundo? I did promise you that I wouldn't forget your little betrayal, didn't I?" Floating slowly around his head, she said, "But you know revenge is a dish best served cold."

With his shoulders slumped in boredom, Raimundo asked, "Is that why you haven't bothered to do anything to me since you ran back to Pandabubba?"

"Oh, I was tempted. I know all your dirty secrets, Raimundo. I'm sure your teachers would have been very interested to learn of your hometown hobbies. But even if they had believed me, I am far more vicious than your average little tattletale. Oh no, my dear boy, I had far bigger, eviller plans for you." She grinned wickedly. "Did you really think it would be that hard for me to track down your family?"

Raimundo's heart only skipped a single beat before he resumed his blase facade. "Yeah? And what's a ghost hag with no hands going to do to my family? Spook them? They'd suck you up in a vacuum cleaner before you can say 'ghost busters.'"

"Oh, Raimundo," said Wuya, shrugging two of her tendrils and still smiling, "did you forget that I'm working with one of the most wicked crime lords in Hong Kong? I couldn't hurt your family, but he sure did."

A deep chuckle filled the room, and Raimundo spun around. He only had a moment to spot Pandabubba high on the stairs before trails of purple fog oozed across the floor, curling around his ankles like ivy vines. Raimundo stumbled back and tripped on something cold and solid. He landed into a hot, wet puddle, and when he sat back up, his clothes were soaked and scarlet. At his feet lay his oldest sister Giovanna, eyes wide and empty, blood trickling from her mouth.

Shock closed Raimundo's throat, leaving him barely able to speak while he scrabbled away. "N-! Gia-! It's n-" His hand landed on another cold corpse; Leticia lay facedown with her braids torn and strewn. Still choking on the purple haze, Raimundo's eyes whipped around the room, and like leaves in winter, his mother and all of his siblings lay scattered, dead, and broken across the floor.

With his skin hot from spilled blood and his insides cold and empty, Raimundo babbled through tears, "N-No, no, th-they can't, NO-" He scrambled to his feet, and his limbs and hair dripped red. Distantly, he could hear someone screaming, and his throat turned hoarse. Above him, two voices cackled.

In the purple fog, he spotted movement. With low groans, four figures trudged toward him with their arms reaching out and their eyes as blank as his siblings'. Raimundo wasn't sure what pathetic sound came out of him when he recognized his fellow Xiaolin Warriors. "G-guys, guys, wha- what's happening? You can't be-"

Jack, Omi, Kimiko, and Clay all stared at him with unblinking white eyes, mouths hanging open and drooling. Raimundo ran to Jack and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Querido, please, please, say something! What's going on?"

Jack's torso dropped, and Raimundo had to jump away before the redhead could sink his teeth into his shoulder. Behind him, something clattered to the floor, and Raimundo only had time to spare a glance at the crowbar. Directly above him, Pandabubba called, "Better defend yourself, boy. The only way to stop a zombie is a blow to the head."

In a haze of fear and panic, Raimundo grabbed the crowbar and pointed it toward his undead teammates, stumbling while he backed away. "N-no, no, this can't be happening-" The back of his ankle hit Miguel's cold little arm, bringing his bleary gaze back to his dead family members. Dead. Dead. Everyone dead.

Jack shifted his feet at the pace of a box turtle while he reached for Raimundo, groaning and oblivious to the weapon between them, and through tears as hot as the blood coating his body, Raimundo blubbered, "J-Jack, no, I can't, I c-cant-"

Far away, he heard a deep voice say, "You were right, Wuya. Evil for its own sake has its merits." A ridiculous, blithering laugh echoed over Raimundo. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. He snapped his head up, and through bloodshot eyes, he saw a man cackling with Wuya. Dead dead dead dead-

Wind swirled around his legs, casting the fog away while he leaped, and with a swing of the crowbar and a single, sickening crunch, the nightmare was over.

* * *

Distant and muffled, like he was listening from underwater, Jack heard a weird sound. Laughing? Was someone laughing? His neck twitched, and he groaned. The noise was loud, hitched, and broken. Crying?

Rai...mun...do?

His head jerked toward the sound, and he shuffled forward. Hands outstretched, he tripped and smacked his face onto a heavy cardboard box. Leaving a puddle of spit on the shipping label, he rolled onto the floor and almost stayed there. Except the laughing continued. Moaning, Jack rolled onto his stomach and crawled toward the noise.

Rai...mun...do?

He heard a thud and a clatter, and in an instant, Jack's mind cleared. With spit all over his chin, he blinked and looked around the room quickly enough to spot several motionless figures on the floor. Just as he recognized one of them as Raimundo's flirty sister, Larissa, she vanished. The purple fog evaporated, taking all the dead bodies with it. All but one.

Kimiko, Omi, and Clay murmured in confusion as they regained conscious thought, and all four of them faced the middle of the room. The Shadow of Fear and the Zing Zombone lay at the base of the stairs, where Raimundo stood with a dripping crowbar and bloodstained clothes, and Pandabubba lay dead at his feet.


	23. Chapter 23

Jack swallowed bile at the sight of the expanding red puddle under Pandabubba's head. Omi skittered back and bumped into Kimiko, who grabbed him tightly enough for her fingernails to break skin. The only sound in the room was Raimundo's ragged breathing while he spun around like a rabid wolf, crowbar still in hand.

Then boots crossed the floor, and Jack was yanked away from the mess. Clay dragged him back, pushed him into Omi's and Kimiko's arms, and planted himself between the younger monks and Raimundo. Voice somehow steady, he asked, "What happened?"

Raimundo didn't seem to hear him. He took a stumbling step away from Pandabubba, blinking rapidly at the rest of the empty room. "Where did- where did they go? What-?" His gaze dropped onto the Shadow of Fear laying on its side near Pandabubba's empty hand. "He- he-"

"Drop the crowbar." Clay shifted his weight as Raimundo moved, keeping himself in front of the others.

Fingers tight on Jack's sleeve, Omi said, "I d-don't remember coming here. Pandabubba c-captured me and Jack, and he used the Zing Zombone on us."

At Omi's words, Raimundo's wide eyes shifted to the Zing Zombone on the floor, and his mumbles turned indecipherable. Kimiko whispered, "P-Papa was showing Dojo a dance party game, a-and Clay and I heard something behind us. That's... that's the last thing I remember." An odd, high-pitched noise escaped her against her will. "W-what's going on? What- what- What's Pandabubba doing here? Is he-?"

"Raimundo?" croaked Jack, gulping at the bubbling heat in his gut.

"Jack?" Raimundo finally looked up at the group, and the crazed fear finally softened. "Guys? Guys? You're-" He swallowed, and his gaze flickered back down to the two Shen Gong Wu. "I-it wasn't real? It wasn't real. H-he tricked me. Wuya told him- It was fake. They're fine. No one's dead, he-" His foot slid a bit in the puddle, his head whipped back around to the corpse at his feet, and the crowbar slipped from his hand. The sound of it dropping to the floor cracked across the room like thunder.

Pale, Kimiko flinched closer to Jack and Omi. "W-where's Papa? Is he okay?"

"Raimundo." Clay took a cautious step toward the teen, fingers poised over the Lasso Boa Boa at his hip. "Partner, do you remember anything? Do you know what happened in here?"

With his gaze stuck on Pandabubba's body, Raimundo's voice was small."H-he's dead. I- I killed him. None of it was real, but I saw him and jumped at him and swung at his head and-" Something in his ragged breathing turned wet, and he gritted his teeth.

With a gasp, Omi's hands flew to his face. "It- it was the Zing Zombone!" He jumped out from behind the other monks and ran toward Raimundo before Clay could snatch him. "Raimundo! It- it must have been the Zing Zombone! He used it on you, and it forced you to- to-" He stopped feet away from the puddle, gagged, and clutched at his throat. Voice weaker, he continued, "This was not your fault. You did not mean to do this. R-right?"

Raimundo grimaced at his palms, still smeared in scarlet. Omi's face paled in the silence, and Clay grabbed hold of his shirt. Jack pushed Kimiko's arm away, fell onto a crate, and threw up over the side.

Rubbing the back of his hand across his forehead, Clay pulled Omi back and took another step closer to Raimundo. "We're gonna need Master Chase to sort this out, alright? Let's just... I'm sure there's an explanation for all this..."

"There are cameras," mumbled Kimiko, pointing weakly to various corners of the ceiling. "In all the rooms. We can figure out what happened, but-" Her voice gave way to a startled squeak when a cheerful little tune rang from her back pocket. In a practiced, thoughtless motion, she pulled out her phone, but she stared blankly at it before flipping it open and answering, "Papa?"

The answer was faint until she hit the speaker option. Her father's voice was laced with fear when he babbled, "-strange men in the building, all my employees were looting nearby stores, what's going on? Kimiko, are you okay? Where are you?"

"I'm fine," Kimiko said, voice unsteady. "S-strange men? Where are you?"

"Don't worry; I'm at security. The police are here. They've arrested some of the intruders, and they're searching the rest of the building-"

The monks heard doors slamming open in the floors below them, and then a voice called from the top of the stairs, "Kids! There you are!" They jumped and spun their heads to look up at Dojo, whose mouth fell open at the scene. The only color left on Raimundo's face was the blood spatter. When he stepped away from Pandabubba, his shoes left red footprints on the floor.

The monks did not know what reactions to expect from Dojo, but a wince and a defeated, "Hoo boy," was not among them. The little dragon sprang down a couple stairs but clambered onto the railing before he could get too close to the mess. "Okay. Okay. Kids? We gotta go. There are cops hunting down Pandabubba's goons downstairs, and uh, Xiaolin Dragons getting tangled up in some random city's police force, uh, rarely goes well."

"Dojo." Omi's finger shook when he pointed it at Pandabubba. "Dojo, he- he-"

Other than abnormally high amount of tail twitching, Dojo gave no sign that the corpse's presence upset him. "Yeah, kiddo, I see him. We gotta go, okay? You kids need fresh air. We'll figure this out at the temple."

"N-no, Papa, don't come back into the building," Kimiko said into her phone, shoulders hunching. "Stay outside. We're heading out, too. Just. Yeah. Uh-huh. Talk to you later." She clicked the phone shut, and she was the first to move toward the stairs. Skirting around Pandabubba as if he were a venomous snake, she darted up toward Dojo. Omi trailed behind her, hand still on his throat.

Still slumped over a crate and drenched in sweat, Jack couldn't bring himself to move. Clay walked to him and threw one of Jack's arms over his own shoulder, physically lifting him from the ground and dragging him toward the others. "I'm fine," Jack said with a cough. "I'm great, I can walk, I'm fine." He had some faint recollection of righteous anger the last time Raimundo had put him in this situation, but as he and Clay passed Pandabubba, facedown in a puddle of blood and possibly brain matter, all he wanted was to throw up again.

Dojo called past him, "Come on, big guy. We gotta move fast."

Jack glanced back down the stairs. Raimundo had backed into a stack of crates far from the stairs, eyes round and dripping, fingers limp over his chest. "Me?" He spread his arms a little, casting his rust-stained white hoodie in the light. "Shouldn't you... Shouldn't you leave me here?"

Dojo hopped onto Clay's hat and eyed the spattered teen up and down. "Not a chance, bucko. Come on." He sprang onto Omi's head and pointed out the door, and as the other monks began their retreat with wobbling, unsteady steps, Raimundo followed with his head down.

* * *

Master Monk Chase had expected the trip to Tokyo to take longer than usual; the Zing Zombone was hardly special, but he knew Kimiko's father resided in the city and assumed her family reunion would delay their return. He spent the afternoon and evening puzzling over the next day's lessons, particularly over the team's unified signature move. With Dashi and Guan, he himself had mastered the Dragon Sān Tóu formation, a move for three Xiaolin Dragons. He had also read about the hypothetical Dragon X Kumei Formation, designed for four. However, he could not find any previous evidence of a move designed for five Xiaolin apprentices at once. He would have to invent something new.

However, the instant Dojo's silhouette appeared in the sky, a tiny green sliver in the dark, Chase's thoughts dissolved like cotton candy in the river. There was nothing inherently obvious in Dojo's flight pattern to indicate something was wrong, and Chase certainly did see five passengers, but every instinct in his bones had him jump to his feet and run out to the court as the dragon landed.

As usual, Omi sat in front, but today his little shoulders were hunched, and his face was locked in a conflicted, frightened grimace that Chase had never seen on him before. Next in line sat Kimiko, who was mumbling something about "self defense" and kept silencing her phone, which wouldn't stop ringing. Though normally Clay would sit behind her, today he sat near the back, separating the three younger monks from Raimundo, whose clothes were stained dark from shirt to shoes. The second Dojo touched down, Jack slid off his side and dry-heaved into the dirt.

When Dojo shrank, the other four monks barely landed on their feet. Master Fung joined Chase's side but remained silent behind him, eyebrows furrowed and mouth curved in a frown. Chase approached the students and asked, "What happened? Is anyone hurt? Was Guan there?"

With the first two questions too difficult to answer, it took a moment for Omi to finally mumble, "Guan wasn't there."

"He used the Shadow of Fear!" blurted Kimiko, who looked ready to follow Jack's footsteps and barf. "Rai probably thought he was defending himself. It wasn't his fault!"

Clay shook his head and wiped at his brow. "Pandabubba was at Tohomiko Electronics, Master Chase, sir. He sprung a trap on us, and- and Raimundo, he-" Clay gestured weakly to the teen in question, who crouched on the ground with his hands on his knees.

Dojo jumped onto Chase's shoulder, wiping off some smeared red that had dripped onto the scales on his back, and leaned close to Chase's ear. "So, uh. Looks like we're gonna have to have the self defense talk a few years early for this batch, huh? Heh." Even though he couldn't sweat, he rubbed nervously at his ear tufts.

Omi's fingers gripped at his apprentice sash. "Old Me said there's a traitor among us." He peered over at Raimundo, who wouldn't make eye contact. "I gave you my lucky Sword of the Storm. I thought you were one of us."

"Let's not jump to conclusions," said Chase. "Omi, Kimiko, Clay, Jack, you four go inside. Tell Master Fung what you can, check by the infirmary to treat any injuries, and try to get some rest." He stepped further out into the courtyard, hands folded in front of his chest, until he stood over the fifth Xiaolin Dragon. "I will talk to Raimundo alone."

After a few anxious glances at each other, Omi, Kimiko, and Clay hobbled up the porch stairs and followed Master Fung into the temple. As soon as the three kids were out of sight, Dojo muttered through gritted teeth, "Sounds like a plan. I'll, uh, be breathing into a paper bag for a bit, don't mind me." His composed countenance finally gave way to something far twitchier; he sprang from Chase's shoulder and darted into the temple like a startled goose.

Master Monk Chase raised an eyebrow at Jack, who had not joined the others. He sat on the ground, shooting furtive glances in Raimundo's direction, and even though he didn't have a drop of blood on him, he looked just as guilty as his teammate. He opened his mouth, looking ready to say something, but he withered under his teacher's curious gaze and snapped his mouth back shut. Like a puppy with its tail between its legs, he finally clambered to his feet and retreated into the temple.

Raimundo dropped his head onto his knees, and Master Monk Chase waited a moment to see if he would speak. He had held some mild suspicion over the young Dragon of Wind from the moment he set foot into the temple. Bristly, quiet, and antisocial, Raimundo had shown little interest in gaining the friendship of the other monks. Chase could not understand why Master Fung had picked him, since not only did the boy fail to mesh with the rest of the team, but Wind was not a Wu Xing element. Raimundo had been a black sheep from the start, and his cold nature had repelled his teammates... or at least, most of them. Chase had never before considered Jack Spicer a mystery, and yet the redhead's reason for latching onto the prickly Dragon of Wind eluded him. Lately, the two had become inseparable, and Chase had watched Raimundo change in the process. The boy had turned warmer, kinder, protective, and attentive, and Chase had started to understand what Master Fung saw in him.

Yet here they were.

Keeping his voice low and his gaze steady, he asked, "What happened?"

With his head hanging, Raimundo slowly unfolded his limbs until he sat with his shoulders hunched and his arms limp in his lap. A drop of red dripped from his hair onto the dusty ground. His voice was hoarse and weak when he finally answered, "I thought... I saw my family. I thought he killed them. He was laughing about it; I could hear him. A-and then I saw the others, and they were acting weird, and they looked dead but they were moving?" His fists clenched, and he hiccuped. "He and Wuya were laughing, and I jumped and I- I-" He leaned forward and hid his face in his hands. "I could've stopped him without hurting him. I could've tied him up or knocked him out or something else. But I didn't." His words were muffled in the skin of his palms when he finished, "I killed him."

Master Monk Chase considered crouching near Raimundo and resting a hand on his shoulder, but he decided against it. Raimundo seemed far too brittle for physical contact. After a long breath in and out through his nose, Chase said, "You are not the first Xiaolin Dragon to end a human life. Many monks young and old have killed their enemies before, either through self defense or after exhausting all other options. However, it is not the Xiaolin way. Mercy is one trait of many that separates us from evil."

"But it wasn't self defense." Raimundo picked at the undersides of his fingernails. "I didn't care what he did to me. I wanted him dead." Another hiccup shook his shoulders, but he still wouldn't look up at Chase. "Jack was right about me. I don't want to help people; I want to kill them."

"Jack?" Chase blinked and frowned at the odd new puzzle piece presented to him. "Jack said that to you?"

"He was so scared of me," said Raimundo, voice wet and shaky. "But I-"

"Master Chase." The other elder's voice cut through the heavy tension in the air, and Chase turned to face Master Fung, who had hold of one of Jack Spicer's ears. With a deeper, angrier frown than Chase had ever seen on him, the other elder glared at the wincing young monk and said, "Jack, would you mind telling Master Chase what you just told me?"

"I didn't say anything," Jack said to the dirt.

"Didn't you?" With his teeth gritted, Master Fung looked ready to openly snarl at his student. "When I asked the four of you if Raimundo had ever shown signs of violence before, you didn't say anything about a deal you made with him?"

"L-listen!" Jack waved his palms over his chest and tried in vain to free his ear from Master Fung's grasp. "You took that out of context! You were asking all these nosy questions and I wanted you off my back and-"

"I asked you for context, and you refused to give it." Master Fung yanked Jack closer to Chase, whose arms instinctively reached out to catch him in case he tripped. "If you won't talk to me, perhaps you'll talk to your favorite teacher. What are you hiding from us, Jack? How long have you been willing to endanger every resident in this temple?"

Unused to witnessing the elder lose his temper, Chase stepped forward and brushed Master Fung's hand free from Jack's ear. "Master Fung, with all due respect, your anger is unnecessary. I am sure Jack is endangering no one."

"Your faith in your students is admirable," said the other elder, eyes still narrowed onto the back of Jack's head, "but I fear that today, your trust has not been rewarded." Wrinkling his nose, he added, "Jack in particular is not known for his honesty."

Jack winced, and Chase had to bite his tongue to keep from snapping at the other elder. He had known for years that Jack was far from Master Fung's favorite student, but the elder had never shown open disdain for the poor boy before. Unfortunately, this was an issue they would have to address later; they had far more pressing matters at hand. Resting a hand on Jack's shoulder, he asked, "Jack, I will only ask you this once: is there anything you need to tell us?"

Jack's eyes immediately flickered to Raimundo, who still crouched on the ground and watched the conversation without blinking. With a weak, pained smile, he stammered, "U-u-uh, well, I, uh, can't think of anything at the moment. Might have to, uh, think about it? Hard to be a genius, you know, too much stuff in your brain, messes with memory and all that, uh-"

"Are you stalling?" asked Master Fung, looking ready to grab him by the ear again.

"Whaaaaat, no! I'm just thinking-"

"It's okay, Jack." The quiet voice from the ground had all three turn to face Raimundo, who finally stood. The stains across his white hoodie and green pants had dried into the color of mud. With his hands clenched at his sides, he said, "I broke my end of the deal, so you don't have to keep yours." He shifted his gaze to Master Monk Chase. "I made Jack keep secrets from all of you. I threatened to hurt him if he didn't."

"That's not true, he-!" Jack withered under Master Fung's glare and bit his lip.

"Pandabubba's not the first person I've..." Raimundo gulped and glanced at the ground, unable to finish the sentence. "I did the same thing to other people back home. I came to the Xiaolin temple to learn how to get better at it, but then I learned that so many Shen Gong Wu do all this harmless stuff, and I thought I was wasting my time, and..." His fingers tugged at the hem of his jacket. "And Wuya promised to help me if I started stealing Wu for her. So I did."

As the answer to a question that Chase hadn't bothered to ponder for a year slid into place, Raimundo continued, "Jack stopped me. He found me in the vault, and he stopped me. He gave me another chance, and then we went to Rio, and..." He rubbed a fist across his eyes, but doing so left a streak of murky red. "There was this guy there who I just, I barely had any proof but I... I figured he deserved it, so I took him out. Jack saw me do it, so I threatened to do the same to him if he didn't keep quiet."

"That's not what happened-" Jack shifted under Chase's grip, but the desperate, pleading look on Raimundo's face shut him up.

"Are we to understand," said Master Fung slowly, attention finally shifting away from Jack, "that Pandabubba was not your first victim? You've done this before?"

"I thought I was doing a good thing," said Raimundo, finally with a trace of heat in his voice. "I was getting rid of people who made the world worse, so I thought it was right." His gaze shifted to Jack and softened. "But Jack, he wasn't so sure. I didn't want him to be scared of me, so I tried to change. I really, really thought I could do it."

Raimundo's head dropped, and Chase tried to think clearly through his fog of shock. No one in the courtyard could speak until Master Fung finally murmured, "Master Chase, can I have a word with you?"

"Y-yes." The word came out slow and forced. Chase released Jack, who stumbled out from between the two elders and stood awkwardly near the group. After a heavy sigh, Chase glanced at him said, "Jack, you may go back inside."

Jack twiddled his thumbs. "What's going to happen to Raimundo?"

"That is for us to decide, young monk," said Master Fung. "Go back indoors."

Jack gawkily side-stepped toward Raimundo. "N-nah, I'll stay out here."

Master Fung's scowl returned. "That was not a request, Jack. You are no longer safe out here. Step away from Raimundo and go inside for your own protection until we can sort this out."

Jack gulped and squared his shoulders. Shuffling the last few steps to Raimundo, he grabbed the other teen's hand and stood next to him, answering Master Fung's glare with his own. Head still facing down, Raimundo squeezed Jack's hand and started trembling.

One of Master Fung's eyes twitched, but before he could speak, Chase grabbed him by both shoulders and led him away from the boys. At the other side of the courtyard, where Chase could still see the teenagers but hopefully be heard by neither of them, he turned to the other elder and snapped, "What has gotten into you?"

"Me?" Master Fung spoke through gritted teeth; Chase hadn't seen him this distressed since Omi was an infant. Looking like he'd be pulling out his own hair if he had any, Master Fung wildly gestured toward the boys and said, "I just discovered that a student that I personally selected as a Chosen One has secretly been a teenage serial killer. To be quite honest, I have had better days. How can you stay so calm? We have allowed someone this evil to live in the same building as us for years-"

Master Monk Chase shook his head. "I do not think he is evil. He is misguided, but he has shown remorse. With the proper tutelage-"

"Are you about to suggest that we let him stay here and continue his training?" Master Fung's discomposure gave way to appall. "After everything we have learned about him? He has ended human lives, Chase. He is a threat to everyone around him." He motioned toward the temple. "What happens when he loses his temper around Kimiko, or Clay, or Omi? You have always been so eager to protect your students from the slightest danger, but now that the danger is here, you suddenly change your tune?"

"Raimundo is also my student," said Master Monk Chase. "It is not too late for him. He can change if he wishes to do so." He shifted his gaze toward the two boys at the other side of the courtyard. Jack was letting two silver little robots waddle around on his arms, babbling quietly to Raimundo, who was ignoring the robots and watching him instead. Chase nodded in their direction and said, "Jack certainly has faith in him."

"Jack cannot fix Raimundo any more than you could fix Guan," said Master Fung, and the words flooded Chase's veins with ice water. With his heart plummeting in the cold, he whipped his head back to the elder, who watched him with his hands folded and his mouth curved in a sad frown. "I am sorry, Master Chase, but some monks cannot be saved. There is something poisonous dwelling within Raimundo's heart, and I cannot allow him to remain here, threatening the other monks with his presence."

Chase's arms dropped to his side. "Then what do you suggest we do? Send him back home, where he might regress into whoever he was before he came here?"

Master Fung's shoulders sagged, and he bowed his head. "I am afraid he has left us with no better choices."

Raimundo had known from the instant the elders walked away that he was about to get thrown out of the temple forever. While the two had bickered barely a soccer's kick away, he had listened to Jack ramble aimlessly about the U-bots in a poorly crafted distraction attempt, drinking in his presence and trying to memorize the sound of his voice. When the two elders finally strolled back, Jack shoved one of the robots into Raimundo's pocket before Master Fung physically dragged him back into the temple.

Raimundo was not given much time to pack, nor was he given the chance to say goodbye to the other monks. It was probably for the best. He took the time to change his clothes, tossing his hoodie and other stained garments into a garbage bin and hoping someone would have the sense to burn them later. When he stepped out of his room with a poorly stuffed suitcase, he wore a green and white t-shirt over an orange long-sleeved shirt, and his U-bot shuffled around in his khaki cargo pants.

When he stepped back outside, Dojo waited at his full size, looking as conflicted and defeated as Master Monk Chase, who stood near him. While Dojo took the suitcase into his clawed hand and Raimundo prepared to climb onto his back, Master Monk Chase said, "Young monk, I hope that you do not forget all the things you have learned here. No matter what you have done in your past, it is never too late to change. However, you must decide that for yourself. Your destiny is yours alone."

Raimundo couldn't look him in the eye long enough to respond. He clambered onto Dojo's back and focused his attention on the green scales between his palms. When the dragon finally took to the air, he turned back and watched the temple fade away into the dark like a star in the clouds.

To Raimundo's relief, the flight to Brazil was quiet; Dojo didn't seem to know what to say. When the Pacific Ocean gave way to South America, Raimundo felt shuffling in one of his pockets, and the U-bot climbed up his thigh and asked, "So uh, why are they throwing you out again? Something about you smashing somebody? Or were you just too handsome for them to handle?"

Raimundo's eyebrows shot up; the robot's voice wasn't his. He scooped and held it up in front of him. With tiny goggles and a tiny helipack, U-Jack waved back up at him. Jack had given him the wrong robot.

"Jack?" croaked Raimundo. The robot tilted his little head, smiling innocently, and Raimundo's face pulled into a grimace. With a loud sniffle, he cradled the robot in his palms and whimpered, "I'm s-sorry, Jack. We made a deal, and I broke it. I p-put all that pressure on you to keep those secrets, a-and you trusted me, and I couldn't get better. I tried, Jack. I really tried."

He gulped back the rest of his blubbering before Dojo could comment on it, but thankfully the dragon had enough tact to keep his thoughts to himself. Even the U-bot went quiet, maybe too stunned or outdated to react properly. As the night life of Rio lit the horizon, Raimundo wiped the tears from his face and cleared his throat. "D-Dojo, can you do me a favor?"

Dojo sent a worried glance his way, but after pursing his dragon lips for a moment, he gave a sincere nod. "Sure thing, kiddo, what d'ya need?"

"There's somewhere else I want you to drop me off," said Raimundo, voice turning steadier with each syllable. "Not my family's house. It's only like a few blocks from there. Is that okay?"

Dojo studied him for a moment, barely making an attempt to hide his suspicion, but then he nodded again. "Alright, bud, just point it out when we get there."

It wasn't long before they drifted over the Pedrosa house. Raimundo pointed the way up a few streets and turns until they reached his destination. "Here."

Dojo's eyebrow tufts lifted at the sight of the building. "As in, right here?"

Raimundo somehow had enough life in him to say, "That's what 'here' usually means, yeah."

Dojo looked like he might have chuckled under better circumstances. He kept his word nonetheless, settling down in front of the white stone building, across which the words "Servir E Proteger" were written in neat blue letters. As Raimundo slid from his back, Dojo cringed and said, "It's gonna be alright, kid. You don't have to do this."

Raimundo gently pushed U-Jack back into his pocket. "Yes, I do." He left his suitcase on the ground where Dojo set it, walking up the stairs to the double doors and waving goodbye. "See ya, Dojo."

The building's interior was somehow cold and humid at the same time. After taking a moment to recover his nerves, Raimundo approached a desk near the door, where sat two men with black outfits and badges on their shoulders. One of them turned to Raimundo and said in Portuguese, " _Need some help, little guy?_ "

" _Yeah, sort of._ " Raimundo took a deep, shaking breath. " _You found Romeo Carvalho in an alleyway. He was stabbed in his throat, and there was no other sign of a struggle._ "

Both of the policemen faced him now. " _How do you know that?_ "

" _You found Gabriel Garavito in a purple car near the river two years ago. He looked strangled, but you never found the weapon. Three years ago, you found Arthur Rodrigues on a roof with a bunch of stab wounds on his chest. No weapon then, either. Four years ago, you found Luiz Gomes in his own house and a bullet from his own gun in his head, but the fingerprints on the gun were not his. They belonged to a kid._ "

One of the policemen stood, and Raimundo flinched, but no weapons were drawn. The cop repeated, " _How do you know all that?_ "

Raimundo's throat was almost too dry to speak. He felt U-Jack shuffle around a bit in his pocket, and he remembered Master Monk Chase's last words to him. Heart pounding hard enough that he thought his ribs would crack, he held his wrists out. " _Because the fingerprints were mine_."


	24. Chapter 24

_Hey Raimundo,_

 _Not really sure how to start this, haha. Haven't heard from you since you left for Rio, and it's been a few weeks now. Master Fung didn't tell us you were leaving, or I would have said goodbye, I swear! Chase thought it would be a good idea for me to "write out my feelings" or whatever, but uh... that's lame, so I'm just going to tell you about everything else instead._

 _I've been in my lair a lot. I've made these cool Koibots and Sharkbots- they can swim and fire torpedos and all kinds of cool stuff, but we haven't had any underwater Wu yet, so they're still waiting in the wings. I've been kinda falling behind on the training course since I'm not really sleeping well for some reason, so I'm thinking of building a robot that looks and acts just like me who can do the obstacle course in my place. I'll call him RoboJack!_

 _Speaking of robot versions of me, I totally goofed and gave you the wrong U-bot! Gamma Brawn is still here and the temple, which means you have Little Jack, right? I can totally ship your bot back to you if you want, but if you don't care either way, is it alright if I keep him here? I like talking to him. He almost fills that Raimundo-shaped hole in the, uh, in the temple, y'know? Haha._

 _Anyway, I bet you're glad to be back with your family, right? Do you have as many chores there? Is it easier because the work can be split by more people, or is it harder because there's more people to clean up after?_

 _Let me know!_

 _-Jack Spicer, Xiaolin Boy Genius and Dragon of Metal_

 _P.S. Before you call me out for how weird it is to send you letters that I typed and printed out, I'll have you know that my giant genius brain is way too full of awesome facts to remember petty, unimportant details like spelling. Spell-check is my most loyal minion!_

* * *

 _Hey Raimundo,_

 _So... I wasn't sure how to tell you this, but I messed up the other day. I was totally keeping all those secrets I said I would! I didn't tell anyone about the Heart of Jong fight, or you working for Wuya, or the stuff I saw in Rio, or anything! Kimiko and Clay figured what happened at Tohomiko Electronics was Pandabubba's fault, not yours. Omi... well, Omi's opinion is stupid, so he doesn't count. I thought maybe if I kept my mouth shut about the other stuff, Chase might soften up and let you come back or something. (Do you want to come back?)_

 _But the other day, the Mind Reader Conch revealed itself. Should be obvious what it does. At first, we just bickered about stupid stuff we overheard in each other's heads. (Apparently, multiple people think I need better deodorant and a bath. Jerks.) But later that night I was minding my own business in my room and thinking about some stuff I could have done different, whether it was the right call to keep the secrets about you or if maybe you were right about some things, and it turns out Omi had snuck into the vault and used the Conch to eavesdrop._

 _So... Everyone kinda knows about everything that happened, and I'm kinda in totally hot water right now. Omi did a lot of yelling, but that's okay, he's way more mad at me than at you. Kimiko, Clay, and Dojo are all pretty upset about the whole thing, and no one really wants to hang out with me anymore since they "can't trust me," which is stupid because when you think about it, keeping my end of a deal shows I'm super trustworthy, right? Well anyway, that's why I'm by myself in the lair so much now. Gamma Brawn keeps me company though, so it's cool. Master Fung decided that the Mind Reader Conch had caused "much grievance and strife," so he took it away and left for that other temple where he goes on vacation or whatever he does when he's sick of us._

 _So yeah, everyone kinda hates me right now. Are you doing any better back home?_

 _Write back soon!_

 _-Jack Spicer, Xiaolin Boy Genius and Dragon of Metal_

* * *

 _Hey Raimundo,_

 _Are you getting my letters? It's been a couple months now, and I haven't heard back from you yet. I guess you're kinda mad at me for letting all the cats out of the bag over here while you're gone, huh?_

 _Well anyway, in case you're interested, Master Chase has us all learning these cool new Xiaolin Apprentice moves! Mine is kinda tricky since I can't summon my element from my surroundings as easily as the others can, but I'll get the hang of it! We can also combine our elements with Shen Gong Wu if we focus really hard, and I haven't quite managed to turn into a cyborg monkey with the Monkey Staff yet, but I can use the Third Arm Sash to summon a CYBORG ARM, so that's pretty cool!_

 _Guan has been a giant bald turd as usual. Apparently the Tokyo police confiscated all of Pandabubba's Wu, even though they had no idea what any of them did, and Wuya helped Guan take them for himself. She's following him around now, so that's super. I guess that kinda solves the moral dilemma of stealing Wu from police, anyway. Guan's pretty much the only one who shows up for Wu, but he's not as easy to fight now that there's only four of us. He twisted my ankle pretty bad yesterday, but it's whatever. I got ice on it and stuff._

 _Robojack is coming along great! I've got most of the motor mechanics figured out no problem, and I'm sure he'll look just like me once he's painted and everything. The only real trick is his brain, since it has to be just like mine. It's hard to replicate perfection!_

 _Seriously, let me know if you're getting the letters!_

 _-Jack Spicer, Xiaolin Boy Genius and Dragon of Metal_

* * *

 _Hey Raimundo,_

 _Did you know that Dojo apparently goes crazy every 1,500 years, and the only way to prevent it is to lock him up in a flimsy wooden house for a day? Because I sure didn't!_

 _But yeah, Chase explained that it's like a side effect of Dojo's Wu-sensing abilities. Every now and then he "overloads," and he has to stay locked up in a little box or he'll grow a second head and try to eat everyone. How do I know all this? Because A CERTAIN BALD LITTLE MORON COULDN'T KEEP HIM IN THE STUPID BOX._

 _We had a Wu reveal, and since Dojo couldn't fly us there, we had to take the Silver Manta Ray. (I forgot to tell you about the Silver Manta Ray! It's one of the only Wu we've managed to win from Guan since you left. It's like a plane, it's freaking awesome!) Well, one of us had to stay behind to watch Dojo, and Omi volunteered me since I "can't be trusted" and all that jazz. Chase, who's been super cool about the whole thing, tried to get Omi to back off, but I pointed out to Omi that if I can't be trusted, why should I be left alone with Dojo? I thought his tiny little brain was going to explode. He changed his mind and decided to stay with Dojo himself._

 _All he had to do was leave Dojo in the box._

 _Guess what he didn't do?_

 _I am currently writing to you while covered in spit. Getting swallowed whole by a dragon is exactly as slimy and nasty as you'd expect. (It was lit weirdly well in there, though? He had organs that glowed in the dark?) Omi had to figure out how to lock Dojo back up while the rest of us putzed around in his gut, and let me tell you, playing third wheel to Kimiko and Clay is getting super annoying. Just KISS already._

 _Are things going okay in Rio? How's Little Jack? Let me know!_

 _-Jack Spicer, Xiaolin Boy Genius and Dragon of Metal_

* * *

 _Hey Raimundo,_

 _I'm sure you've noticed that this letter comes with a present! You'll have to dig through all the tape and bubble wrap, but I made some headphones for Little Jack! I kidnapped Omi's U-bot for a while and messed with its communication mechanics, and it turns out that with a bit of tinkering, I can make the U-bots talk to each other no matter how far away they are! Just pop those headphones on Little Jack's head, and since Gamma Brawn is wearing his own, they can talk to each other instantly from anywhere! They're not just headphones, they're Head Phones. Get it? So if for whatever reason, you're getting my letters but can't write back, you can still reach me through the U-Bot Head Phones- if you want, anyway! I'm cool with whatever._

 _We've had a bunch more Wu show up. Guan got some, we got others. If you want, I can make you a list of what they all are and what they do? I should probably do that anyway. I've been meaning to write up a spreadsheet to keep up with it all._

 _Robojack is almost done! I've had him functioning and talking some, but he's got a bit of an attitude, so I still need to fiddle with his loyalty chips. I would have finished him months ago, but with all the Wu hunts and training, it's hard to find time for robots. After the Conch fiasco, I used to sneak off whenever the other three wanted to hang out since it was pretty obvious I wasn't invited, but I guess Clay feels sorry for me or something because he and Kimiko are being nice to me again. Omi's being a butthead as usual, only now he's mad that my tinkering with his U-bot caused it to start talking in butchered French and Spanish._

 _Enjoy the Head Phones!_

 _-Jack Spicer, Xiaolin Boy Genius and Dragon of Metal_

* * *

 _Hey Raimundo,_

 _Apparently Grand Master Dashi was a real weirdo when it comes to making Wu. Have you ever had a giant golden baby pelvic thrusting its giant golden diapers at you? I have!_

 _Guan won the Mosaic Scale the other day, and apparently it was holding this little bug critter in it named "Sibini." (Sabini? Sabeenee? Spell-check, you're a failure!) Anyway, this bug thing crawled into Kimiko's ear and POSSESSED her! How gross is that? It took like ten seconds for us to figure out something was wrong since it had this really weird laugh- seriously, what is it with these villains and these lousy evil laughs?- but the only way to get Sibini out was to basically beat the snot out of Kimiko. I don't think Clay has ever been so upset in his life, and you remember how mad he was when I accidentally laser-blasted his BBQ sandwich, don't you?_

 _Anyway, while Clay was having his crisis over fighting a girl, who also happens to be his True Love or whatever, Omi and I tried to beat the snot out of her ourselves, and that went about as well as expected. I honestly thought Omi had a chance since, y'know, water trumps fire and all that. Not so much. It ended up coming down to Kimiko vs. Clay, and I honestly thought she was going to cook him alive. I don't know if he got fed up with Sibini's taunting, or if he finally decided that girls are tough enough to handle themselves, or if he figured that Kimiko would literally rather die than be possessed by a bug, but he eventually gave her a bop to the head, and she dropped like a bag of potatoes. Romantic, right?_

 _So now we've got Sibini in a jar that I welded shut, and Clay is having a repressed meltdown somewhere over compromising his Gentlemanly Texas Values or whatever, and Kimiko is absolutely fine, for the record. She doesn't remember getting possessed, so I tried to take the fall for Clay and told her that I'M the one who gave her that bump on her head, but she's not buying it. She says I don't have enough upper body strength. I almost pointed out that she's one to talk, but I'm not craving death today, so I didn't._

 _Anything interesting going on in Rio? It's been almost a year since you left, and none of us have heard anything from you. I've been getting kinda worried to be honest, haha. Are you okay? You're not still mad at me about accidentally spilling the beans, are you? Well anyway, if everything's cool, Gamma Brawn still has the Head Phones on, so tell Little Jack to say hi!_

 _-Jack Spicer, Xiaolin Boy Genius and Dragon of Metal_

* * *

 _Hey Raimundo,_

 _Okay, fine. You don't want to talk to me. Whatever, I'm over it. But you know what, I just had the WORST day getting possessed by Wuya because of the stupid Heylin Comet, and the others had to beat me up to get her out, and we STILL can't get the Dragon X Kumei formation figured out and everyone says it's my fault when I'm not DOING anything wrong, and my ribs still hurt from when Dyris threw me into a stalagmite which I didn't even bother to write to you about since it's not like you care, right? Robojack keeps calling me pathetic, and you know what, maybe he has a point!_

 _When we fought for the Heart of Jong and you dumped Wuya, I thought, y'know, Rai messed up but now he's learned his lesson, right? So I kept my mouth shut. And then I saw what you did to that guy in Rio and I thought, Well that's really bad but the dead guy was worse, right? Xiaolin Warriors would be hypocrites if we argued that we can't solve problems with violence, so maybe killing someone is okay if they're evil enough? Maybe Raimundo was doing what none of us were brave enough to do? Well, I was confused enough about it that I kept my mouth shut. I went with the flow. Since when does Jack Spicer go with the flow?_

 _And you know the worst part? I still don't know what else I could have done to fix things! If I'd ratted you out to Chase, you would have been kicked out sooner, and I guess the big reason I didn't snitch is because... I didn't want you to go. I didn't want to give up on you; I don't like giving up on anything! You were my teammate and you didn't tease me as much as the others and you were cool and funny and smart and... I didn't want to lose you. I wanted you to stay at the temple and become an awesome butt-kicking Xiaolin Dragon just like me and..._

 _Well, anyway, I'm used to not getting what I want._

 _Did I do something wrong? Is that why you aren't writing back? Is there something I could have said or done that would have kept you from attacking Pandabubba or that guy in Rio? Is there something going on that you won't tell me?_

 _You know what, it's fine. If you're going to be a jerk and give me the silent treatment like Omi did for the first three months you were gone, I guess I don't need to talk to you, either. I've got robots to build and apprentice attacks to master! I'll tell Gamma Brawn to keep the Head Phones on since, y'know, I guess HE misses you. Sad, right? But don't worry, I won't be bothering you with my pointless letters anymore. Take care, Beta Brawn. Or don't. I don't care either way, really._

 _-Jack_


	25. Chapter 25

Thirteen months after the monks' promotions to Xiaolin Apprentices, Jack Spicer woke to three different alarms scattered across his room. Groaning and cursing, he lurched around to shut off all the noise. The first alarm was on his laptop, where he still had three tabs open on various news sites from Brazil. The second was on a clock hidden under the unfinished model of his Yes-Bot, and the third was on his phone, which he'd left abandoned upon a pile of blueprints. Once the room was quiet, he sat back, rubbed his bleary eyes, and muttered, "Morning, Gamma."

On his desk, sitting cross-legged on a little doll-sized bed that Jack had crafted last year out of scrap metal and a set of Omi's pajamas, Raimundo's U-bot answered, "Morning, dude."

"Anything?"

"Nada." The U-bot bowed his head and scratched a finger against one of the ear pads of his Head Phones. "Want me to keep them on anyway?"

Jack rested his elbows on his knees, eyes unfocused on his blueprints. "Yeah. Sure." With a halfhearted shrug, he heaved himself to his feet, held out a hand for the U-bot to climb onto, and let the little robot clamber into his roomiest pocket while he trudged out of the mess of his bedroom.

As usual, he was the last monk to the kitchen. Kimiko, Clay, and Omi, who had already finished their breakfasts, were all gathered around Dojo, who sat on a pile of letters and packages at the kitchen table. While Jack yawned and raked red hair out of his eyes, Kimiko winced at him and asked, "Jack, are you ever going to get your hair cut? Do I need to get the scissors myself?"

"I'm growing it out," Jack grumbled, flicking an indignant Dojo off the three packages. "You know, to look like Chase."

"Master Monk Chase has long, thick hair," said Kimiko, raising an eyebrow. "You, sir, have a stringy mullet. Here." She pulled a little black elastic off her wrist and held it out. "At least pull it out of your eyes. It'd look a lot better in a ponytail."

Jack snorted. Omi nodded and said, "Perhaps if a feminine hairstyle keeps your hair out of your face, you will improve your skills in battle." With a casual smile, he peered up at Jack and added, "Of course, shaving it off completely would be the ideal solution."

Jack hesitated before responding, trying to read Omi's smirk for malicious intent. His friendship with the youngest monk had taken a brutal beating last year, and he still wasn't entirely sure how well it had mended since. At the moment, the distrust between them seemed muted but mutual. The silence lasted just long enough for Omi's smile to drop, and Jack finally mumbled, "Not sure I can pull off the look as well as you can, Cue Ball."

Omi's eyes narrowed just a fraction. "Perhaps not."

Fed up with either the petty drama or the complete lack of acknowledgment, Dojo clambered onto one of the chairs and said, "Hello? Am I going to get a 'Thank you' for picking up everyone's mail or what?"

The four monks gave a feeble chorus of thanks while Jack flicked through the short stack of letters: two for Kimiko, three for Clay, and absolutely none with a return address to Brazil. Jack huffed, tossed the letters to their owners, and turned his attention to the boxes. The largest one had Clay's name and a large stamp of Texas on the side, but the two smaller packages were addressed to him and Omi. Picking up his own, Jack said, "Looks like my granny sent us more sweaters, Chrome Dome."

Omi, who rarely ever got mail, visibly perked in his seat and clambered for his package. "Did she really?"

Jack tossed Omi's lightweight package to him, tore open his own, and tried not to pout too much at what he was certain his grandmother had lovingly crafted by hand. "She used to send robot parts," he finally muttered, holding the neon knitted sweater up to his chest. "You know, usefulthings."

"Clothing is always useful!" Omi wriggled into his own maroon sweater, which dropped to his knees. "And this one is not nearly as itchy as the last one. I shall have to write her a thank you letter commemorating her improvement."

Jack nodded and winced guiltily. His once weekly letters to his grandmother had fallen to the wayside lately, even though unlike a certain Brazilian jerk he once knew, Granny Spicer was far more likely to write back to him. "I should give her a call..."

While Clay read the letter from his far bigger box, Kimiko gasped, reached inside, and pulled out the Lasso Boa Boa. "Clay, are these the Wu your sister stole from us?"

Omi jumped onto the table and reached into the box, and while the little monk yanked out the Orb of Tornami, Clay beamed at the group and said, "Looks like Jessie had a change o' heart after all! She sent 'em all back!"

"Your little sister?" asked Jack. "The hot biker chick?"

"Call her that again, Jack," said Clay, still grinning cheerfully, "and I'll knock your sorry lil block off!"

With a sheepish smile, Jack sat back in his chair and gave a thumbs up in response. Still standing on the table, Omi said triumphantly, "See! I knew she had changed her ways!"

By the time the four monks had gathered and tallied up all the returned Shen Gong Wu, it was time for their morning training session. Jack had still not managed to fix all of RoboJack's personality quirks, so he had no choice but to join the others out on the obstacle course. Since Kimiko wouldn't stop wrinkling her nose at his messy hair, he finally appeased her by pulling the longer chunks in the back into a short ponytail, which earned her nod of approval.

When Master Monk Chase stepped onto the field with Dojo on his shoulder, he said, "Young monks, this past year has been fraught with challenges. You have faced Guan, Wuya, the Heylin Comet, Dojo's affliction, and countless other foes. You have mastered your elements at the Apprentice level, and now the time has come for you to prepare for the next rank: Wudai Warrior."

After a few gasps from his teammates, Omi raised his hand. "Are you certain we are ready, Master Monk Chase? Though I have truly excelled in my element, we still cannot wield the mighty Dragon X Kumei formation." For once, he did not couple this reminder with a glare in Jack's direction, but Jack knew better than to think the blame had shifted elsewhere.

"You are correct, Omi. None of you are ready." Master Monk Chase folded his hands in front of him. "I will only promote one of you. However, that will only happen when you work together as one."

Jack pursed his lips. "What does that mean?"

"It means that your talents as individual monks will only take you so far. Your greatest asset, far more powerful than any Shen Gong Wu or martial art skill, is your bond with each other." Chase's gaze turned dark and distant. "I have witnessed firsthand what happens when Xiaolin Dragons allow anger and bitterness to drive them apart. The four of you must do everything in your power to prevent history from repeating itself."

The monks glanced at each other with confused frowns and raised eyebrows, and then Kimiko raised a finger. "Uh, kind of a doom-and-gloom speech there, Master Chase. Aren't we getting along just fine?"

"The Dragon X Kumei formation is meant to represent our connection with each other," said Omi, crossing his arms and studying the ground. "We have yet to master it, which means that our team is flawed somehow. Perhaps something is missing."

Jack tensed his shoulders, braced for the usual accusation thrown his way, but it never came. From Master Monk Chase's shoulder, Dojo began to writhe and blather. The four monks visibly perked, and when the dragon's little body went still, he waved his arms and said, "We have a Category 5 Wu alert! The Ying Yoyo just revealed itself!"

Master Monk Chase took a sharp breath through his nose, and Kimiko said, "Wait, didn't we already get that one? I thought Clay pulled it out of your ear."

Master Monk Chase shook his head. "That was the Yang Yoyo, its sister Shen Gong Wu. We hid it away in the other temple to keep it away from Hannibal Bean," His gaze hardened at the group, "and it is absolutely essential that we do the same with the Ying Yoyo."

"How come?" asked Clay. "What do they do?"

"They are portals to the Ying Yang World, a mysterious, unexplored universe with rules of its own." Master Monk Chase raked his hands through his hair. "Dashi stumbled upon it while fiddling with teleportation magic. The Ying Yang World is not terribly dangerous in and of itself, but you can become lost or trapped there, and if you do not wield both Shen Gong Wu to leave, part of your chi will be left behind."

"Why does Hannibal Bean want the Yoyos?" asked Omi.

"The Ying and Yang Yoyos make it easy for Hannibal Bean to lock away his enemies in a world they cannot escape." Chase's eyes narrowed at the sky like he expected to find Hannibal Bean's bird circling them while he spoke. "Furthermore, he can use the Yoyos to trick someone into leaving part of their chi behind, and any attempt to retrieve it will bring the wrath of the chi creature."

Jack's eyebrows shot up into his messy bangs. "The what?"

"The chi creature, a beast that dwells within the Ying Yang World." Master Monk Chase curled a finger in front of his mouth, and his gaze turned distant. "I have not studied it closely, so I do not know how sentient or intelligent it is, whether it collects chi like Hannibal Bean collects souls, or if it consumes chi like reapers consume life force."

"Reapers?" asked Kimiko. "As in, the grim reaper? That's a real thing?"

"Listen, kiddos," said Dojo, slithering around at the monks' ankles, "these are some fascinating conversation tangents and all, but maybe we should talk about the Ying Yoyo after we get it?"

"Dojo is correct," said Chase, folding his hands and bringing his focus back to the team. "You must leave at once. When you find the Ying Yoyo, do not attempt to use it, and do not allow Guan to use it against you. Bring it straight back to the temple."

"You're not coming with us?" asked Jack, backing toward Dojo while the dragon expanded to full size and allowed the others to climb on. "You know, like you usually do when a Wu is super important?"

Master Monk Chase smiled at them. "That will not be necessary anymore, Jack. I trust the four of you completely."

When Dojo took off, he swirled low to the ground and drifted southward through the mountains. Omi opened the ancient Shen Gong Wu scroll and gasped; where the files for both Yoyos should have been, he instead found a giant hole in the paper. While Dojo explained something about a potato famine, Jack's fingers reached into his pocket to pat Raimundo's U-bot on the head, and his attention drifted. After a year of enduring suspicious, doubting glances from his own teammates, hearing his favorite teacher express complete faith in him had left his cheeks pink and heart racing.

Kimiko's voice cut through his daydreaming. "Do you guys think Master Monk Chase is more straightforward than Master Fung? Like, when he says he's going to promote one of us, does he literally mean just one, or is it a riddle about teamwork or something?"

"Gotta be a riddle," said Clay with a nod. "He wouldn't be encouragin' us to work together an' master the Dragon X Kumei formation if he were about to separate one of us from the others. I reckon once we figure out what's missin' in the formation, he'll promote us all at once."

Jack ducked his head and crossed his arms so he couldn't watch any of the others glance in his direction. They had gone through this same argument dozens of times over the past year. No matter how perfectly they struck their poses, no matter how heated the battle or how in tune with their elements they were, nothing ever happened with they struck the Dragon X Kumei formation. Kimiko, Clay, and Omi all claimed to feel that something about the formation was "off," but Jack never felt anything, almost like he wasn't meant to be there in the first place. He didn't know what to make of that, and with his teammates already distrustful of him, he certainly wasn't about to admit his concerns.

Dojo drifted low through giant trees within an ancient Chinese forest, and when he settled on the ground, the monks sprang onto the mossy earth and braced themselves for battle. Before them sat a tree stump the size of a small house, and at the base lay a black and white yoyo. The forest was otherwise silent and empty.

Arms still stretched out in battle formation, Kimiko narrowed her eyes at their surroundings. "Anyone else smell something rotten in Denmark?"

Omi blinked at her. "We're in China."

In a display of what Jack would call efficiency and anyone else would call laziness, he flicked on his helipack and buzzed to the yoyo. While he scooped it up, Clay shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, I ain't about to look a gift horse in the mouth."

Omi's eyes bugged when he turned to Clay on his opposite side. "What horses?"

"It's a saying, Chrome Dome," said Jack, landing in front of them and tossing the yoyo to the smallest monk. "It means, 'Who cares why Guan is MIA? Let's roll out before he shows up.'"

"That sounds awfully specific." Omi turned the yoyo over in his palm, and then he frowned at it. "What does 'Hecho en' mean?"

The other monks were already climbing back onto Dojo, who hadn't even bothered to shrink down. At Omi's question, Clay turned and tilted his hat back. "Sounds Spanish. Why do you ask, lil partner?"

Omi held up the yoyo for Dojo and the other monks to see. Taped to the yoyo's side was a bright yellow sticker that read, "Hecho en Mexico."

The three older monks froze in mid-climb, and Dojo's fuzzy eyebrows rose on his head. Jack winced and said, "Oh. Huh. Failed a spot check there, whoops."

"Made in Mexico? It's fake?" Kimiko sprang down and reached out for the yoyo, which Omi dropped into her hand. "Someone made a fake Ying Yoyo? Why would they do that? Why not just take the real one?"

"Because they didn't want us to know they have the real one," said Clay, reaching her side in a few strides. Picking at the sticker, he added, "Not the brightest bulb, though, if they're leavin' the sticker."

"There's only one guy I know who steals yoyos and makes fake Shen Gong Wu," said Dojo, whose voice was weirdly heated and angry. Pursing his dragon lips, he added, "But why would Chucky be here?"

Three of the monks turned to Dojo, who launched into a sudden, unexpected tirade about some ex-friend of his and a stolen family yoyo, but Jack took a step back and glanced down while Raimundo's U-bot climbed out of his pocket and up to his shoulder. Sitting near Jack's ear, the robot murmured, "Something weird's going on. Why would anyone on the Heylin side try to trick you guys with a fake Shen Gong Wu? Why go through the trouble if they're going to use the real one against you eventually anyway?"

"Because, um," Jack drummed his fingers on his crossed arms, "maybe because they weren't going to use it against us? Maybe they're going to use it against someone else, someone they don't want us to know about."

"But you guys are the Xiaolin Warriors," said U-Rai with a frown. "You're the only enemies the Heylin side has. Who else would they go after? Who else do they consider a threat?"

* * *

In the attic of the Pedrosa household, the only empty space left available in the house, Raimundo lay on a mat with his blanket tangled around his legs. The circles under his eyes had only grown darker and more pronounced since his return to Rio, and his jaw was set and tense while he glared up at the ceiling, lit only by a sliver of moonlight. He had pushed his only pillow to the corner to be a makeshift bed for Jack's U-bot, who watched him with his hands folded and his index fingers drumming in front of his nose. When Raimundo finally sighed and cast his gaze to the corner, U-Jack smiled innocently and asked, "So how was therapy?"

"Ugh." Raimundo's eyes rolled into his skull while he turned back to the ceiling. "Didn't go. Played hooky at the beach."

U-Jack clicked his tongue like a disappointed parent. "Come on, dude, your fam's worried about you."

"What's the point? She can't help me. If I lie to her, I'll be wasting my time. If I tell her the truth, she'll think I'm making stuff up for attention," His fingernails scraped against the floor when he clenched his fists, "just like the cops did."

U-Jack shrugged. "Yeah, maybe, but you can't just waste away in here forever in your self-imposed prison." He threw his little arms out to gesture to Raimundo's mat. "Look at you. You don't even have a bed. You love beds. Go wake up your mom and ask her if she can get you a bed."

Raimundo sat up and gripped at his hair. "I should be in jail."

"Not this again," said U-Jack.

"I'm guilty!" Raimundo kicked the blanket away from him and spun to face the robot. "I told them everything I did, I offered my fingerprints and my knives and everything, and they still sent me home! What does that say about the cops if they won't lock away someone who's actually guilty?"

"Look, big guy, if some random kid showed up in my office and told me that he's been killing full-grown serial killers since he was eight years old, I probably wouldn't believe him either." U-Jack leaned back against the pillow with his hands behind his head. "Besides, even if they did believe you, no police force with a shred of common sense would lock away a Xiaolin Dragon. Can you imagine the bad PR? All the damage control they'd have to deal with?"

Raimundo let out the breath in his lungs, and he sagged like a wilting plant. Despite the open window nearby, the air in the room was stale and stifling. Sometimes he felt like he couldn't breathe, like a thick, soggy weight sat in his rib cage, but he could never bring himself to climb downstairs to join his family. He only saw his mom and siblings on the rare occasion he found the energy to sneak food out of the fridge, but he otherwise did everything in his power to avoid their concerned stares and their gentle questions that he couldn't answer. They didn't know why he had left the temple, they didn't know why the police had escorted him to their front door, and he would rather rot in this room forever than hurt them with the truth.

Defeated, he murmured, "So what am I supposed to do?"

"Gee, I dunno, maybe get a hobby? Something healthy, like jogging, or surfing, or knitting? Maybe you can actually go see that therapist that your mom wants you to talk to? Or maybe," The robot pointed to the wastebasket in the corner, currently overstuffed with wads of paper, "you could try finishing one of those letters you've been working on for a year?"

Raimundo's shoulders hunched when he turned to the wastebasket, where every crumpled piece of paper had the words, "Hey Jack," written across the top, along with various attempts at conversation, jokes, and apologies, all eventually scribbled out and tossed aside. Tugging at the hems of his pants, Raimundo muttered, "He doesn't want to hear from me."

"He doesn't-?" U-Jack let out an exasperated groan, clambered to his feet, and pointed at the opposite wall, where Raimundo had taped every single one of Jack's letters to him. "Then what do you think those are, you big dummy? How do you think he feels, telling you about all his adventures and feelings and getting nothing but radio silence from you?"

"That's not- I'm trying, but-" Raimundo feebly motioned to the wastebasket of prior attempts. "What would I even say to him?"

U-Jack's frustration gave way to glee. With a big smile, he said, "Oh, that's easy! You'd say, 'Dear Jack Spicer, Incredible and Handsome Xiaolin Dragon of Metal, Love of My Life, how are you?'"

Raimundo's face flushed scarlet, and he scooted away from the robot. "I'm not- He's not the love of my life!"

U-Jack nodded his head toward the wall of letters. "Add some candles, and you've got a shrine over there, pal."

"Do not!"

"You know he likes you too, right?" U-Jack trotted over to him and climbed up his calf to sit on his knee. "I should know; I'm practically his robot clone, way better than that RoboJack dude he keeps writing about. He thinks you're super hot, like Chase-level hot!"

Ignoring how U-Jack's suggestion was doing weird things to his heart rate, Raimundo avoided eye contact and muttered, "Come on, dude, Jack's not into broody, evil creeps."

"You don't know that. Maybe he has a type." U-Jack beamed at Raimundo, processing his body language for an embarrassingly long pause before he flailed his little hands and added, "Wait! Also, you're not a broody, evil creep."

"Smooth save." Raimundo dragged his fingers across the dust on the floor and leaned back against the wall. "But you're wrong, and it doesn't matter. Even if he were into me, he could do better. He should do better." His gaze passed from Jack's letters on the wall to his own pathetic attempts at reciprocation in the wastebasket. "I... I don't want to be... like this." He felt heat in his eyes, and he blinked up at the ceiling to push it back. "I didn't want to let him down, but I did. I'm still doing it. I don't know why I can't change, why I can't just... do better. It's like there's something rotten in me, and I don't know how to get it out." He clenched his fist and rubbed it across the dripping moisture on his face. "I wish I could fix what was wrong with me. I'd do anything."

"Would you?"

Raimundo froze. The voice wasn't U-Jack's, and it hadn't come from inside the room. A bird's shadow passed across the moonlight, and Raimundo jumped to his feet, accidentally knocking U-Jack to the floor. While the robot squeaked and scrambled out of sight like a spooked hamster, Raimundo crept to the open window. Resting his fingers on the sill, he breathed slowly and waited.

"Care to join me, Dragon of Wind?" the deep voice said from above. "I would hate for our conversation to disturb your relatives."

Raimundo leaned out of his window, held onto the top part of its frame, and peered up. Heylin Warlord Guan sat upon the Pedrosa rooftop with a crow on his shoulder, spinning a black and white yoyo up and down on his meaty index finger.

Guan let the yoyo smack into his palm, and he held it out. "I have a gift for you."


	26. Chapter 26

"Warlord Guan." Despite the slight muscle atrophy caused from hiding away in the attic for a year, Raimundo gripped the window frame, climbed on the sill, and allowed the dying remnants of his Wind element to toss him up onto the roof. Low to the shingles like a stalking cat, Raimundo side-crept to the top of the roof to match Guan's eye level, fists raised for a fight. Teeth bared, he asked, "What are you doing here?"

Guan leaned back and rested an elbow on one knee, looking immensely unimpressed. "I thought I made my intentions clear, but Chase's students aren't known for their perceptive skills." He held up the yoyo in the moonlight. "This is the Ying Yoyo. Hannibal Bean wanted you to have it."

"How did you find me?"

Guan's eyebrows lowered a bit, but his face remained otherwise neutral. "We have kept close track of your whereabouts for quite some time now."

"That's creepy." Raimundo kept still, hoping to keep Guan's full attention while his mother and siblings slept two stories below. No matter what Guan did to him, Raimundo had to make sure his family remained uninvolved. "Why did you wait so long to ambush me, then?"

Guan's nostrils flared like an annoyed bull's. "You are far more obtuse than I expected, young warrior. I am not here to ambush you." He held up the yoyo once more. "As I have said twice now, I am here to give you the Ying Yoyo, a Shen Gong Wu that went active a few hours ago."

Raimundo recoiled a bit and squinted at the yoyo. "What does it do? Explode in its user's face?" He returned his gaze to Guan, studying his body language for any trace of deception. "Why are you giving it to me? What's the catch?"

"The Ying Yoyo has many uses. It allows you to travel to the Ying Yang World, and once you depart, you leave a part of your chi behind. If you are aligned with the side of good, you turn evil upon exit. If you are already evil, then you turn good upon exit." Guan allowed the yoyo to spin down from his hand once, and then he caught it in his palm again. Sneering at the teen, he said, "You, Raimundo, have committed atrocities far beyond the capabilities of most mortal teenagers. It is quite clear where you stand in your moral alignment. However, Hannibal Bean senses your stress and remorse, and he is offering a solution to your problem."

For only one moment, Raimundo's eyes widened, and he almost stepped closer. The yoyo gleamed innocently in the thin moonlight, but when Guan shifted on the shingles to lean in his direction, Raimundo bristled and lifted his fists to shield his face. "Why? Again, what's the catch? You guys are Heylin. Why aren't you trying to recruit me like Wuya did? What do you gain from me leaving my- my evil side or whatever- in the Ying Yang World?" Shoulders stiffening, he shook his head and took a small step back. "Can you guys steal it and use it once it's out of me? Is that it?"

The permanent frown on Guan's face looked even harsher in the dark. "Of course not. Your evil chi would be contained in a bottle, useless to anyone other than yourself. There is no catch." He wrinkled his nose. "Despite what Chase might have you believe, Hannibal Bean is no monster. He wishes to help you the way he helped me. I wanted power and immortality, and he granted it. You want to be free of the horrific, despicable urges within your soul, and he has a solution to that, too."

Raimundo crouched down and lowered his fists to rest his fingers on the shingles, eyes on the yoyo and mouth curved into a suspicious frown. "So you're trying to tell me that Master Monk Chase is a liar, and Hannibal Bean has been a cool dude the whole time? If he's such a nice guy, why doesn't he ever show his face? You expect me to trust some random Heylin boss I've never met?"

"Hannibal Bean does not care for fighting; he prefers to observe from the dark. Believe me, young warrior, he has had many opportunities to harm you, and he has chosen not to take them." Guan stood, and Raimundo almost lunged at the unexpected movement, but then the Heylin warrior tossed the yoyo to bounce off the roof and into Raimundo's open palms. Lifting his chin, Guan said, "I, on the other hand, grow bored of talking. You can either choose to accept Hannibal Bean's charity, or you can reject it. I will not care either way."

Raimundo's heart rammed in his ribcage, but Guan did not lift his spear to attack, and the yoyo did not explode in his hands. Shifting his gaze down to the Shen Gong Wu, he puzzled over the Heylin warrior's motive. He knew a con game when he saw it, but he had no idea what Guan or Hannibal Bean had to gain from this. "This..." He slowly stood and let the loop of the yoyo's string slide onto his finger, "This thing will fix me? It will take all the evil out of me and leave it in the Ying Yang World?"

"Correct. All of the redemption, and none of the work." Guan snorted at his own joke.

Raimundo winced, but he tilted the yoyo downward, ready to let it spin. What if Guan was telling the truth? What if the Ying Yoyo really could tear out the worst parts of him to lock away in a bottle forever? What was the worst that could happen? Here he was, a useless mooch living in the family attic, a murderer who deserved to rot in prison, and a coward who couldn't finish a letter to his dearest friend. Even if Guan was lying, it wasn't like Raimundo could sink any lower.

Letting the Shen Gong Wu drop from his hand, he said, "Ying Yo-"

"GOLDEN TIGER CLAWS!"

A shrill voice rang from on high, and purple light slashed across the stars, lighting up the night with a bright, swirling portal. Raimundo stumbled back onto his knees, squinting into the brightness while four figures dropped down. Kimiko, Clay, and Jack all landed on the roof, and Omi's heel landed on Guan's skull. The Heylin warrior stumbled, and Omi front flipped to join his teammates and shout, "You shall cease this trickery at once, Warlord Guan! Prepare for a most humiliating defeat!"

Raimundo scooted and gawked at the newcomers. "Guys?" Clay and Omi looked exactly as he remembered, though both maybe a tiny bit taller. Kimiko had grown about half a foot, still as slender as ever, and her hair was free and loose instead of trapped under a colorful wig. Jack had a weird ponytail for some reason, which at first glance seemed to be the only difference. However, his back was straight and his knees were bent in a battle stance far more confident and practiced than Raimundo had seen a year ago.

Guan snarled and swirled his spear to point at the monks. "Didn't Chase ever teach you children how to mind your own affairs?" His words dissolved into a bellowing roar, and the roof started to crunch under his transforming feet as he morphed into his enormous monster form.

When Guan's massive claws slapped into the shingles, Clay barreled forward. "Seismic Kick, Earth!" He slammed into Guan, and the two toppled from the roof and down into the street. The booming crash shook the house and left cracks in the road.

Guan rolled back onto his clawed feet, and Kimiko launched into the air with a bronze Shen Gong Wu that Raimundo had never seen before. "Cannon Blaster, Fire!" she called. The cannon sucked her inside, arched in the sky, pointed at Guan, and fired. In a burst of flames, Kimiko shot out of the cannon and crashed into Guan's massive horned head.

"Golden Tiger Claws!" Omi called, slicing the unnervingly pointy Shen Gong Wu on his wrist across the space in front of him. Another bright, purple portal opened up, and when he jumped inside, the other end of the vortex lit above Guan's scaly back. Omi landed on him, held up a blue sphere, and called, "Orb of Tornami, Ice!" Water erupted out of the Shen Gong Wu, encasing Guan and chilling around his exoskeleton. Omi sprang away, and Guan went rigid on the road, completely frozen.

After Raimundo picked up his jaw off the roof, he glanced over at Jack, the only monk who hadn't jumped into battle. The other teen stared back, confidence gone from his posture, twiddling his fingers in front of his chest while he bit his lip. "U-uh. Hey, Beta Brawn. Sorry for the surprise visit."

Raimundo jumped to his feet so quickly that he nearly slipped on the shingles. "Jack? H-hey, what's up? Uh. I just-" He blinked down at the road, where the other three cautiously circled around Guan, who seemed to be slowly cracking his way out of the ice. "H-how did you know what was-? Did you follow him here, or...?"

Jack pointed at one of the pockets of his cargo pants, from where U-Rai popped out his head and waved. "Gamma Brawn heard something through his Head Phones. Little Jack sent him a message, said that Guan was at your house and stirring up trouble. We knew you didn't have any Wu to fight him off, so..." He shrugged and tilted his head down. "I guess you did get the Head Phones, and you just didn't want to use them."

Ears burning scarlet, Raimundo opened his mouth to argue, but he found himself just as speechless as his unfinished letters. He hadn't known what to say to Jack then, so what could he possibly say now?

Down below, Guan burst from the ice and roared. Lights flickered on from within the homes up and down the street. A few doors opened here and there, but at the sight of Guan's monster form, the few inhabitants bold enough to peek outside slammed their doors back shut. Raimundo heard voices and footsteps distantly below his own feet and slid down the shingles to the edge of the roof. One of his older sisters, Fernanda, called down at the front door, "What is that? Miguel, get back inside-!"

Guan swiveled his head to snarl at the noise, and just as the Pedrosa door closed with another thud, Raimundo yelled, "Wind!" He sprang from the rooftop, and his element sent him flying across the street to land a punch directly onto Guan's misshapen face. Guan barely flinched; Raimundo's year of sulking had left him unpracticed and sluggish. Guan grabbed his leg and flung him down onto the road. Undeterred, Raimundo rolled to his feet and shouted, "You aren't here to help me! I knew you were full of it! Get off my turf before I make you!"

Though Guan's spear looked tiny in his massive claws, Raimundo braced his legs when it turned to point at him, and at the sound of a click, he leaped out of the way just in time. The head of the spear launched out of the wooden shaft like an arrow, attached to the rest by a long chain, and it sailed past Raimundo to bounce across the road.

When the chains dropped, their clinks gave way to a loud buzzing, and Guan cocked his head up just as Jack swooped overhead in his helipack, clutching another unfamiliar, bronze Shen Gong Wu. "Let's see you dance, Guano-man! Ants in the Pants!"

Out of the Shen Gong Wu poured a dark mass of rustling, skittering bugs, all landing directly on Guan's spine. Guan did not move, and nothing happened. The ants slid down his exoskeleton, dropped onto the road and poofed out of existence. Guan huffed, the other monks looked up at Jack, and Omi shouted, "Jack, he is not wearing pants!"

Jack tossed the Shen Gong Wu aside. "Oh, well, excuse me for not assuming that pants are required for- AAAAAAUGH!" He flailed in the air, but his helipack wasn't swift enough to yank him out of the way before Guan swatted him out of the sky with his tail.

"Orb of Tornami!" Omi shouted, blasting a massive jet of water into Guan's chest just as Clay dropped his heel into the road. With a crunch, the road cracked under Guan's feet, and the Heylin warlord stumbled under the onslaught. The chain skittered across the street, clinking when the blade retreated back toward the staff. Guan lifted his spear and spun its chained head around like a whip, causing the other monks to scatter.

Raimundo charged, ducking around the blade to attack even though he had no weapon, no Shen Gong Wu, and no plan. His heart was alive and racing like he had never left the temple in the first place, like he was still a member of the team at his side, like they still wanted him there. He was a Xiaolin Warrior, and he had a job to do. "Wind!"

The breeze tossed Jack's abandoned Ants in the Pants into Raimundo's open palm. Ducking around the swinging blade, he sprang onto one of Guan's massive claws, jumped again to land on the horned face, and shoved the Shen Gong Wu into Guan's roaring mouth. "Ants in the Pants!"

The muffled noise that erupted from Guan's jaws while it filled with stinging, itching insects was as close to a panicked shriek that any of them had ever heard from him. The Heylin warlord grabbed Raimundo by the neck, but Raimundo managed to kick the Shen Gong Wu deeper down Guan's throat before he was yanked away. His limbs dangled underneath him, and the pincers clamped tighter, but Raimundo could almost have laughed at the high-pitched wails coming from their previously unflappable enemy.

"Judolette Flip, Fire!" Ribbons of flame trailed behind Kimiko while she spun over Guan and landed a kick to his head. Raimundo dropped to the ground, and for some odd reason, his vision blurred. His legs quaked a little while he tried to stand. He heard Omi and Clay charging back into battle. His neck hurt. His pajamas felt hot and wet.

He realized that he'd been trying to stand up for several seconds, but he couldn't seem to make his legs move where he wanted them. He was still sitting. The ground was swaying. His neck still hurt. His head drooped, and he couldn't remember his shirt being stained dark like that before. He feebly reached a hand up his neck, and hot liquid seeped down his fingers.

A voice echoed dimly, "Raimundo?" He tried to tilt his head back up, but his muscles didn't seem capable of obeying anymore. A clammy hand touched his shoulder, and he distantly heard a panicked yelp. "Raimundo? Beta? What-?" Raimundo's surroundings swayed again, and everything dropped. His head landed against something soft, and that clammy hand was in his hair now. "Raimundo! Raimundo, hold on- Guys! Guys!"

Far away, Raimundo heard a roar, and he saw the glint of the spear. He tried to croak out a warning, but some weird liquid dribbled from his mouth instead. A blurry image of Guan stomped toward them, spear held high, but just as the blade sprang from the staff, the person holding him shouted, "Titanium Bolt, Metal!"

In a final moment of clarity, Raimundo watched the blade lurch and miss them both. With a clang, the chain snapped free of the wood, and the metal half of the Spear of Guan whipped around and slithered in the air to hover like a fanged snake around the two of them. Raimundo's gaze flickered up to the person holding him, and Jack bared his teeth at Guan. "Big mistake, Guano-man! Looks like your Spear of Guan is now the Spear of Jack!"

Jack flung his fist forward, and the blade shot back across the battlefield and cleaved directly into Guan's eye. Guan's shriek was even louder and more enraged than ever, but it sounded so dim and foggy. Raimundo sank into Jack's shoulder, inexplicably sleepy. "That... that was awesome, dude..." The sounds of battle faded away, and Raimundo knew nothing else.


	27. Chapter 27

jMaster Monk Chase waited at the temple porch, holding his long empty tea cup and banishing his every trace of worry. His young students had made enormous strides since their promotions to Xiaolin Apprentices. Kimiko had mastered her temper, Clay had slowly built his confidence, and Jack could finally hold his own in a martial arts battle. Omi's multi-month grudge against Jack had been a concern, but after the Heylin Comet incident a few weeks ago, Master Monk Chase was pleased to note that Omi's priorities seemed to have realigned once again. The young monk was now tentatively attempting to rebuild his friendship with his closest teammate; Jack was simply still too defensive to realize it. Still, Chase was certain that the monks' mastery of the Dragon X Kumei formation was inevitable.

He watched the sky in anticipation of Dojo's arrival, but instead a burst of sound and purple light erupted out in the courtyard. The Golden Tiger Claws' signature portal split open overhead, and the four monks sprang onto the temple grounds, scrambling and babbling all at once.

"What do we do?!"

"You can't stop that kind of bleeding-"

"What's that black stuff?"

"Where in tarnation is the infirmary?"

Chase jumped to his feet and rushed to the panicked teenagers, who clustered around a limp, fifth person in Clay's arms. As the portal closed behind them, Kimiko whipped her head around and asked, "Wait, what happened to Guan? He disappeared in the middle of all that-"

"Not to worry," said Omi, whose voice was a little too strained to match his words. "I used the Golden Tiger Claws to throw Warlord Guan into the middle of the Pacific Ocean."

Kimiko paused and blinked at him. "Can... can he swim?"

Dojo sprang onto her head and gave a dismissive shrug. "He's an immortal lobster, so... probably."

Jack clung to the back of Clay's shirt, green in the face. Kimiko and Omi backed away as Master Monk Chase approached. He stopped in front of Clay, and his eyes grew wide at the sight of Raimundo, who lay pale, unconscious, and drenched in blood still oozing from a jagged cut in his neck. Chase locked eyes with Clay and asked, "What happened?"

Despite the red continuing to leak and stain his blue shirt, Clay kept steady eye contact, and a slight shake in his voice was the only giveaway to his battered nerves. "Guan must've grabbed him while we were all scrappin', sir."

"Get him to the infirmary. I'll..." Master Monk Chase's voice trailed off while he led Clay up the porch steps, and the other monks followed like a confused litter of puppies. Clearing his throat, Chase pointed back toward the vault and said, "Omi, please put the Shen Gong Wu back in the vault. Kimiko, find me some water. Jack, fetch some rubbing alcohol."

As if desperate to escape the current situation, or at least to do something useful, Omi and Kimiko darted back outside, but Jack merely gave a couple wet coughs and muttered, "There's rubbing alcohol in the infirmary. I, uh, I'm in there a lot. I got the stock memorized. Haha." Through a sniffle, he added, "A-and it's not gonna do much anyway."

Chase did not spare the energy to come up with a comforting response. After they stepped into the infirmary and laid Raimundo down on the nearest mat, Clay stumbled back and stammered, "G-gonna, gonna go change my shirt real fast, if that's alright-"

Chase nodded, barely noticing Clay's retreat. This was not the same. He peeled off the collar of Raimundo's shirt, still wet with blood, and a sudden image of doing the same with a completely different person a lifetime ago struck him. He faltered before he began to mop up the blood with a towel. This was not the same. There would be no weak, gurgling, poorly-timed jokes, or panicking to staunch the flow of blood from the throat of a dear friend, who kept smiling until the bitter, bloodied end. This was not the same, even if the ending was clearly doomed to be.

Jack's voice was small. "Is he gonna be okay?"

Master Monk Chase was not about to lie to his student, but he wasn't sure he had the strength to deliver the truth gently. Raimundo had lost too much blood, and an injury like his could not be sewn back up in time. Even the best hospitals in the world would be unlikely to save him, and none of their Shen Gong Wu possessed healing magic. Studying the gash, Chase gritted his teeth, but then his breath stuttered.

Something else was oozing out of Raimundo's neck, something as thick and black as tar.

Chase leaned closer, and as the dark substance shifted at the cut, the bleeding slowed. He reached out a palm and let it hover over Raimundo's neck, searching for any traces of curses or spells, but he couldn't sense anything. He glanced over at Jack, whose eyes bulged, and asked, "What is this?"

Jack squeaked, "I- I don't know! That's not- I've never seen that before!"

"You said Guan attacked him?" Chase frowned at Raimundo's wound, still seeping with black and red. "Were Hannibal Bean or Wuya there, or anyone else?" At Jack's rapid head shake, he continued, "Did he go into the Ying Yang World? Was he after the Ying Yoyo? Is that why he was in China?"

Jack gulped. "R-Raimundo? H-he wasn't in China. We got the Ying Yoyo, but, uh, it was a fake. Guan planted it to keep us off his scent while he went to Rio to go after Raimundo, b-but we don't know what he wanted-"

"Rio? Rio de Janeiro?" Chase's heart somehow sank even further down into his gut. His voice was low when he said, "Raimundo told me he was from Tubarão."

"Oh. Right." Jack gave a feeble shrug. "Y-yeah, he said something like that to us, too, a while ago. He was born in Tubarão, but his family moved to Rio when he was a kid."

Chase had to resist the urge to grab Jack by the shoulders. "When? How many years ago?" He brushed a limp lock of hair out of his eyes. "Was he there during the reaper attack?"

Jack's fingers tapped together. "The what?"

"Has he ever mentioned the reaper attack on Rio?"

Jack gulped. "W-what's a reaper?"

Chase leaned back to sit up straight, and pieces of a long-dismissed puzzle started to align in his head. "Reapers are monsters that feed on death- or perhaps to be more accurate, they feed on life, and they drain the life away of anything they touch. Their only urge is to kill." He took a cleansing breath so at least one person in the room could remain calm. "For centuries, they existed all across the earth, and people created legends about the 'Grim Reaper,' as if they were one entity that owned the very concept of death. But they are not a deity; they are merely animals. I locked them away a few hundred years ago in the earth's core. They have sustained themselves on the giant spiders that live there."

"Spiders?" Jack squeaked. With his fingers trembling, he scooted closer to the mat. "B-but what does that have to do with Raimundo?"

Turning his gaze to the only window in the room, Master Monk Chase asked, "Has anyone in Rio ever told you about Os Anjos Da Mortes?"

* * *

Eight years prior, Dojo drifted over the Brazilian coastline, soaking wet and scowling while Master Monk Chase crouched upon his back with the Kuzusu Atom in hand. While the monk wrung water out of his long hair, the dragon turned back to him and huffed, "If I'm right, and this was all for nothing, I'm tossing you into the ocean, big guy."

"How did you fail to sense that surge of evil, Dojo?" Chase snapped, peering ahead at the glistening city at the distant horizon. "Hannibal Bean and Guan have done something terrible, and your failure to heed as much is costing us valuable time."

Dojo yawned. "Why would the bean and beef-man be up to anything? We don't have any Chosen Ones at the temple, the Shen Gong Wu aren't active yet, there aren't any prophecies or planet alignments to worry about for another decade... I'm starting to think that 1,500 years of fighting these two has left you a little paranoid." Eyeing Chase's weapon, he added, "Besides, even if they were doing something ugly, fetching the Kuzusu Atom out from under that waterfall is going to be your biggest overreaction yet."

"I am not overreacting," said Chase, shocked that Dojo would dare to doubt him after all these centuries. "My tiger instincts have never failed either of us before. I will be generous and assume that your skepticism is merely a side effect of your crankiness."

"You know me; I'm useless without my eight hours-" Dojo went silent at the sound of a deep, earth-shaking rumble far below. He swooped down upon the city, ignoring the thousands of innocent, gawking civilians. The two swirled and drifted up to land upon the peak of Sugarloaf Mountain, and when they turned around to survey the city, the earth began to crack open. At the edge of the crevice stood Heylin Warlord Guan.

Chase sprang from Dojo's back, and though the two warriors were miles apart, he knew Guan could still hear him when he shouted, "What is the meaning of this, Guan? You know the balance between good and evil has yet to shift this generation, and yet you attack a city of innocents?"

Guan bared his teeth in a sneer, and despite the distance, Chase could hear his answer clearly. "Do you always blindly obey unknown forces of fate, Chase? Perhaps I wanted to start a fight without waiting for destiny to give me permission."

"And perhaps," called a Southern drawl from above, "I found some old friends o' mine and decided to let 'em out for lunch." A red and silver parrot dropped down from the clouds and circled over Master Monk Chase's head. Upon her back, a wrinkly red bean sat upright, grinning down at the old monk with a mouth of cracked teeth as yellow as his wicked eyes. "Guan and I are gettin' bored waiting for your precious Chosen Ones. I figured we oughta stir up some fun!"

"Kuzusu Atom!" Chase pointed the Shen Gong Wu directly at the parrot, but she effortlessly dodged the blast with a cackling screech.

That's when he heard the distant screams. He peered back down. Out of the rift in the earth rose a winged, cloaked creature darker than the midnight sky, a black dot in the distant horizon. It swooped down upon a cluster of people, and though it barely brushed past them, they dropped into the road, limp and lifeless.

Chase's knuckles whitened around the Kusuzu Atom, and he breathed, "Reapers."

Hannibal Bean's answering laugh echoed over the mountainside. "Thought you could hide my lil pets from me forever, didn't ya?"

Chase gritted his teeth. "You fool. They aren't your pets. They obey no one, and they'll be after the strongest lifeforms, prey with the longest lifespans. I may be 1,500 years old, but guess what, Hannibal? You're even older."

"Aww, are you worried 'bout lil ol' me?" While Hannibal Bean spoke, Ying Ying started to drift backward toward the clouds. "Don't you stress your pretty lil head, Chase. Guan and I ain't stickin' around. We figured you'd have enough fun on your own-"

Master Monk Chase did not bother to wait for Hannibal Bean to finish his sentence. He sprang from the mountain peak and raced down the rocky side, hoping and knowing that Dojo would have the common sense to stay somewhere safe. Down below, as Guan disappeared into the scattering, helter-skelter crowd, more reapers floated out of the earth's crust and glided down to pounce upon Rio's citizens.

By the time Master Monk Chase reached downtown Rio- way faster than any mortal person could have done, but still far, far too slowly for him to accept- bodies littered the streets. Every corpse was utterly unharmed; not a single drop of blood had spilled on the pavement. Screams, car horns, and police sirens echoed off the skyscraper walls. As Chase stepped out onto the open road, three reapers circled overhead like buzzards, and when one folded its wings and dropped, he pointed his Shen Gong Wu and called, "Kusuzu Atom!"

The only weapon on Earth with the ability to fight these death bringers sent a blast of white up into the sky, shredding all three reapers into oblivion. Chase considered casting a glance up to Dojo and muttering an, "I told you so," but the situation was too dire. The reapers had scattered in every direction, and he had no way of knowing how many were loose or how far they had gone. He kept his gaze upward, refusing to look around at the dozens- or hundreds- of dead citizens, all the people he had already failed. He had no time to grieve, not when the world was still in peril. With a brief, cleansing breath, Chase ran further into the city, and the hunt began.

Finding each of the reapers was not terribly difficult. He only had to follow the screams, none of which lasted long before the unleashed predators cut them short. Destroying the reapers was another easy task thanks to his chosen weapon; the far bigger challenge was avoiding all physical contact with the reapers before he could vaporize them. He was their most tempting food source, and if they managed to catch him, this battle would be over. He was their exterminator, but he was also a fox under pursuit of the hounds.

"Kusuzu Atom!" he shouted perhaps the hundredth time, blasting yet another reaper out of existence. The fight had now become tedious enough for Chase's mind to wander. What was Hannibal Bean's plan here? Was he merely stirring up trouble like he said, or did he have an ulterior motive? Were the reapers a distraction while something worse happened at the temple, or had Hannibal Bean simply underestimated Chase's ability to resolve the situation swiftly?

A final reaper rose overhead, its robes of fur and flesh billowing under its enormous, sable wings. It swooped down, and Chase shouted, "Kusuzu Atom!"

This time the blast missed. The creature swirled around Chase, avoiding him completely, and though Chase had used every mental justification possible to avoid looking down at all the fallen citizens, he had no choice now but to turn his gaze to the street behind him. Among the bodies, a few people still fled, still unharmed, still screaming, but the reaper lunged after the two pinned against a brick wall: a man and a small child. The boy had his tiny fists raised like he was bracing to defend his father, but the older man jumped between him and the creature just as it landed.

"Kusuzu Atom!" Desperate to avoid blasting the father and son along with his intended target, Chase aimed a little too high and managed to strike the top of the reaper's head. It reared back, utterly soundless in its pain and rage. Black ooze spattered the road and wall, and when Chase skidded to a stop next to the motionless man, he pressed the Shen Gong Wu into the reaper's chest and shouted one last time, "Kusuzu Atom!"

In a flash of white, the reaper disintegrated, and Chase's tiger instincts finally went quiet. Sirens still blared in the distance, but the screams of fear had given way to wails of anguish. Master Monk Chase crouched down to press his finger to the man's pulse, but he was as lifeless as all the others, eyes open and glassy. Chase had arrived too late.

"Papai?"

With a sharp breath, Chase turned. The little boy's suspenders and bow tie were torn, and a large black stain shimmered on his shirt, but he sat upright on the sidewalk, eyes wide and frightened. He was alive.

Master Monk Chase shifted to kneel in front of the boy and asked, "Are you hurt?"

The boy flinched away from him. "Quem é Você?"

A distant crash sent Chase's gaze shifting back uptown. A shadow passed over the brick wall, and Dojo swirled in a circle over the two and called, "Chase buddy, I saw Guan and Hannibal take off and head north. Think they're retreating, or have they got something bigger planned?"

Chase stood. "We cannot take any risks. We must return to the temple to ensure its safety." Clenching his empty fist, he peered around and dropped his gaze back to the boy, and though he doubted the child understood or cared, he murmured, "I assure you, little one, Hannibal Bean and Guan will pay for what they have done."

Though it pained him to leave the child unattended, Chase knew he had little choice. The boy was hardly special; there were hundreds more victims of this attack just like him. With Hannibal Bean and Guan still at large, his duty as a Xiaolin Warrior was to pursue the Heylin side and leave the citizens of Rio to fend for themselves. With one final, pitying glance, he turned away from the child and sprang onto Dojo's back, letting the dragon take him back up into the sky.

Perhaps if he had stayed, he would have seen the black ooze seep through the boy's shirt and disappear into his skin, and he would have watched the boy's green eyes turn as distant and glassy as the corpse's at his feet.

* * *

After the reaper attack, Hannibal Bean and Warlord Guan completely disappeared. Though Master Monk Chase and Dojo returned to the temple within hours, the two villains did not arrive for a second battle, nor would they for many more years. Chase waited nonetheless, pacing through the temple like a caged jaguar, checking every news article he could find for clues.

Though he knew better than to let the guilt eat at him for too long, the sight of that poor, possibly orphaned boy abandoned in the street with his dead father was an image that did not leave his mind for a long time. He had done all he could for that city, certainly more than anyone else on Earth was capable of doing, but a part of him still felt like he had failed. Without a Heylin threat to fight, he plunged into his studies and training, silently and senselessly aching for some chance at redemption.

Then, one day, among the piles of newspapers arrived an odd, handwritten letter.

Dear Mr. Master Monk Chase,

I have heard many tales in my long lifetime of the infamous Xiaolin Temple. It may surprise you to learn that a perfectly ordinary woman like me would be familiar with the various goings on between the Xiaolin and Heylin sides- my own family certainly teases me for my "conspiracy theories!" I am aware that you occasionally accept exceptionally talented youth into your temple, and I do believe that you are due for a new set of "Chosen Ones," are you not?

My dearest son and his wife have recently passed away, leaving me as the sole caretaker of my oldest grandchild. Poor little Jackie has aunts and uncles and cousins, but to my immense disappointment, none of them are willing to accept Jackie into their households. They clearly cannot recognize genius and talent when they see it! I truly want nothing more than to raise my favorite little munchkin myself, but I fear that in my old age, Jackie will not thrive under my care. Perhaps you and I could come to a mutually beneficial agreement, one that benefits both you and my grandbaby.

Jackie and I will be visiting Baieta, Paris, in three days. If you are not busy, I would certainly love to see you there.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Spicer


	28. Chapter 28

After the mysterious dark sludge at Raimundo's wound slowed down the bleeding, Master Monk Chase spent the night tending to the cut. At first, Jack refused to leave Raimundo's side, and his attempt to provide moral support was honestly rather valiant. Unfortunately, though Jack was almost as stubborn as Clay, he had a far weaker stomach, and watching his teacher bandage up the sticky, red and black mess on Raimundo's neck ended up finally proving too much for him. With a barely suppressed gag, Jack shuffled out of the room, muttering about a robot that needed fixing.

The next morning began with the reveal of the Moonstone Locust, and the Xiaolin Dragons performed about as well as any four freshly traumatized teens could do. Not only had Guan survived his swim across the Pacific Ocean, but he was none too pleased to re-encounter the monks who had dropped him there. As the unfortunate contender in the Xiaolin Showdown against him, Jack ended up with a dislocated shoulder and enough bruises to turn the vast majority of his body a sickening shade of purple.

"No shame in a humiliating defeat," Omi mumbled on the flight home, staring down at his fingers.

Jack squinted through a swollen eye. "Yeah, I guess."

Clay tilted his hat aside to look back at him. "How come you didn't wager the Monkey Staff, partner? I reckon ya might'a fared a bit better with that one."

"Figured I wouldn't do so hot." Jack shrugged, but the movement made him wince. "Better to wager something useless. No one's gonna miss the Juju Flytrap. Besides, when are we going to need a plant-eating Wu? Guan can have the stupid Moonstone Locust."

Dojo called from the front, "Honestly, kid? Smart call. We can't risk any baddies getting their hands on the Monkey Staff during the Year of the Green Monkey. Now that I think about it, we better keep our Tongue of Saiping under guard, too."

Jack sat up a little straighter, and his unswollen eye lit up in interest. "Wait, the Year of the Green Monkey? Is that going on now? I remember reading about it in the scrolls when I was a kid-"

"Dojo," said Kimiko, the only monk brave enough to address the elephant in the room, "has Master Monk Chase said anything about how Raimundo is doing? Is he... like, is he still...?"

Dojo shook his head. "Chase only left the infirmary once last night, and he wouldn't tell me anything. He just grabbed a bunch of scrolls out of the study rooms and rushed back." With a toothy, forced smile, he added, "No news is good news, though! We can get an update once we're home."

Jack dipped his blurry gaze back down and twiddled his thumbs. The ride home didn't last much longer, and once Dojo landed, the four were tense as they made their way to the infirmary. Omi reached the open doorway first and peeked inside, and Jack watched the dread in his eyes give way to shock and delight. The little monk bounced on the soles of his feet, clapped his hands in front of his chest, and cried out, "Raimundo! You are awake!"

Jack nearly shoved Omi into the door frame in his haste to rush inside. On the same cot, now with clean sheets, Raimundo sat upright and lightly scratched at the gauze around his neck. Next to him, Master Monk Chase sat cross-legged, frowning at the open scroll in his hands and murmuring, "Remind me to have a talk with the other elder monks about penmanship..."

When the four monks barreled into the room, Raimundo smiled sheepishly and waved. "Uh. Hey, guys." He took a sharp breath when his gaze shifted to Jack. "Dude, are you okay? Your face is all black and blue-"

Jack tried to puff out his chest without grimacing, and he waved a dismissive palm. "Oh, pfft. I'm fine. You should see the other guy!"

Omi trotted to Raimundo's cot and plopped down next to him, causing the teen to flinch back. "Raimundo, I am most pleased to see your swift recovery!"

"Shoot, partner!" said Clay, eyes uncharacteristically round. "We thought you were a goner!"

Raimundo's gaze shifted from one monk to another, looking especially confused at Omi's proximity. "Uh, y-yeah, I really owe you guys for, y'know, saving my life and all. You must've gotten me here pretty fast-"

"Gonna have to give Master Monk Chase the credit for that one," said Kimiko, tentatively sitting down next to Omi but a bit further from Raimundo. "We teleported you here, but he did all the healing stuff." She turned her gaze to the elder. "I didn't know you could heal cuts like that."

Jack scratched at his hair, and Master Monk Chase looked up from his scroll. With a heavy sigh, he said, "Unfortunately, Kimiko, I can't." Closing the scroll and letting it roll into his pile of other scattered documents, he squared his shoulders and folded his hands in his lap. "Young monks, I would normally explain Raimundo's condition to him alone. However, I fear there is a chance his affliction could become relevant to your safety."

The four monks' eyebrows shot up in unison, and Kimiko echoed, "Uh, his 'condition'?"

Raimundo scratched at the back of his palm and ducked his head. "Master Monk Chase said, uh, he said I have an infection or something?"

Chase said, "Years ago, Hannibal Bean released an army of reapers into the heart of Rio de Janeiro. I was able to defeat the creatures, but not before they caused untold travesty upon the city. I was only able to save one person, a young boy." He gave Raimundo a tired, apologetic smile. "You will have to forgive me for not recognizing you until now. After 1,500 years, the millions of faces I have seen start to blur together. I thought you grew up in Tubarão, and I never made the connection."

Raimundo shrugged. "I mean, I didn't recognize you either, so. No biggie."

"I fear that while you may have survived the reaper attack, you did not escape completely unscathed." Chase's expression turned somber. "Last night, Jack and I witnessed something happening to your wound. A dark substance dwelling within your body was healing you."

"Y-yeah," said Jack, rubbing at his own throat, "it was like this black gooey stuff."

Omi's, Kimiko's, and Clay's eyes grew round, and their mouths fell open in various expressions of shock and disgust. Raimundo's nose wrinkled a bit, and his eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement, but he seemed to be the least worried person in the room. "So, like, any idea what it is?"

Master Monk Chase shook his head. "Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any written information other than folktales about the Grim Reaper, and those are all nonsense. My own knowledge is due to fighting them myself through the last 1,500 years, and I have never witnessed a reaper do anything other than kill their victim. The only answers I have for you would be pure guesses."

"I reckon a guess from you oughta be better than anythin' you'll find in an old scroll, sir," said Clay.

Raimundo nodded at Clay and gave Master Monk Chase a weak smile. "Yeah, doc, what's the verdict?" With a resigned, limp wave of his hand, he asked, "Do I have six months to live or what?"

"That is not quite the danger I am anticipating." Chase folded his fingers together and sat a little straighter. "I believe that during my battle against the reapers, one of them managed to infect you with a piece of itself. It latched onto you like a parasite, too weak to kill you or leave, but it hungered nonetheless. As a result, its presence left its mark on your psyche. It instilled within you a desire to kill-"

Omi gasped, and his voice was far louder than Chase's when he exclaimed, "That is why Raimundo is a cold-hearted murderer! He is not evil at all; the reaper made him kill people!"

Raimundo's entire body flinched at Omi's blunt epiphany, and Jack tried to reach over and slap the smallest monk's bald head, but he missed. Raimundo muttered, "No offense, Master Chase, but I don't think any of that is right." Drumming his fingers on his knees, he looked up at the group. "As much as I'd like to blame some creepy, slimy monster thing attached to my soul or whatever, it didn't force me to do any of the stuff I've done. There's no evil voice in my head telling me what to do, and nothing possessed me." He turned his palms outward in a sheepish shrug. "I'm the only pilot here."

Kimiko tugged one of the scrolls closer to her and gave it a cursory glance. "But a freaky, supernatural infection would explain how you were able to get away with the, uh," She winced a bit, "the stuff you did at my dad's place... and in Rio." She tilted her head at Raimundo. "I mean, you were just a little kid when you started, right? But you never got caught, and you never lost. You don't have any scars or anything."

"Sounds like some sorta symbiotic relationship," said Clay, scratching at his hair. "This reaper critter needs you to survive, so it heals you whenever you're hurt, but then it makes you wanna kill someone whenever it gets hungry-"

"It's not making me do anything." Raimundo scooted back in his cot, mouth curved into a scowl but refusing to make eye contact. "Look, I know there's something wrong with me, and maybe some gross reaper gunk kept me from dying like I'm supposed to, but I'm the only one in my head calling the shots. All that stuff I did was my fault, no one else's."

"I understand your skepticism, Raimundo," said Chase, "but until I understand the situation fully, I will have to insist that you remain here in the infirmary. If a reaper did infect you, then it is imperative that I find a cure as soon as possible."

"It sounds like it saved his life, though," said Kimiko, leaning back and touching a knuckle to her mouth. "I mean, obviously this reaper thing is bad news for everyone else, but it's not causing him any problems, right?"

"If Raimundo's testimony from this morning is correct," said Chase, "then the reaper has convinced him to kill someone approximately once a year since Os Anjos Da Mortes. Its most recent victim was Pandabubba, who died a year ago. I believe this pattern exists for a reason."

Omi leaned forward and gasped, "You think the reaper gets hungry once a year?"

Raimundo shook his head, still looking down. "It's just coincidence."

"But that means it's due to get hungry any day now, ain't it?" said Clay, eyebrows rising into his bangs. "But if Rai turned a new leaf over, then he's not gonna feed it 'cause he's not gonna kill anyone. What'll it do then?"

"Depending on its sentience and strength, there are a few things it might do," said Chase. "If Raimundo is correct in its lack of control over him, then it will starve and wither away to nothing. However, if it has the power, it could attempt to consume the closest life force it has available: Raimundo himself. Doing so will likely end them both." Chase folded his hands in his lap and leaned closer to the teen. "Lastly, Raimundo, you claim that the reaper has not possessed you, and your choices were yours alone. However, if my fears are correct, then the reaper could attempt to take that choice away and take matters into its own hands."

Omi gasped again. Kimiko said, "So basically, there's a chance that nothing will happen at all, but there's also a chance that everyone in this room is in danger?" At Master Monk Chase's nod, Clay shook his head and let out a low whistle. Raimundo's mouth pressed into a thin line, but rather than showing fear, he looked like he was resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

Rubbing at his recently relocated shoulder, Jack sat next to Kimiko, silent and not knowing what to think. Chase's story about reapers had left him stunned and baffled all last night, and the passing time hadn't provided him any clarity. He knew Raimundo better than anyone else in the room, and he had never seen any sign of some supernatural force influencing him, but the idea that Raimundo's murderous past had been manipulated by something he couldn't control was... a tempting excuse, if nothing else.

"Remember, Raimundo," said Chase, picking the scrolls off the floor and standing, "your willpower will be your greatest asset. Now that you are aware of the substance within you, you can choose to fight it."

"I won't need-" Raimundo let his shoulders sag, and he dropped his gaze again. "Yes, sir."

Master Monk Chase dipped his head to the rest of the group. "Young monks, I will see you this afternoon for training." At the students' various affirmations, he stepped out of the infirmary and left the five in a room filled with awkward tension thick enough to cut with a butter knife. For a moment, with all the monks looking around at each other, no one spoke or blinked.

"Well." Clay arched his back in a stretch while he stood. "I reckon we oughta let you rest, partner-"

Raimundo frantically shook his head. "I feel fine, you don't have to-" He gulped and gripped at his knees. "I mean, if you wanna head out-"

"Do you want us to stay?" asked Kimiko.

"I just..." Raimundo rubbed at his neck, looking a lot smaller with his shoulders curled inward. "I haven't seen you guys in forever, but, you know, I'm sure you're busy, and you probably don't want to hang out with a dude possessed by a demon or whatever."

"A reaper!" Omi corrected.

"Yeah, that."

Watching Raimundo sag on his cot like a sunless plant, Jack gulped and puffed out his chest. "Hey, listen, Chase is the smartest and hottest guy in the room normally, but if you say you've got everything under control, then I'm buying it!"

"Yes, and most importantly," said Omi, raising an index finger, "You have returned to the temple, and once Master Monk Chase has removed the murderous spirit from within you, you can resume your training as the Xiaolin Dragon of Wind!"

Clay took in a hissing breath through his teeth. "Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, lil partner." At Raimundo's wounded expression, he hastily waved a hand and added, "What I mean is, we can't be makin' any assumptions about what Raimundo wants to do after all this. He might wanna go back home to his family." Still, he and Kimiko shared a quick, uneasy glance, and neither looked Raimundo in the eye.

"Nonsense!" Omi slapped his palms on Raimundo's cot for emphasis. "Raimundo is a Chosen One like the rest of us. He will triumph over the evil presence within him and become a Xiaolin Dragon of Wind!" He jumped to his feet and planted his fists on his hips. "It is his destiny!"

If Raimundo noticed the silent, nervous exchange between Clay and Kimiko, he didn't acknowledge it. He tilted his head at Omi and murmured, "This is, uh, this is a pretty quick turnaround from when I last saw you, little dude."

"When I last saw you," said Omi, "I thought you had murdered Pandabubba in cold blood and of your own free will, but now that we know better-"

"But you don't know better." Raimundo let out an aggravated groan, bowed his head, and gripped at his hair. "This reaper stuff changes nothing. An infection didn't kill Pandabubba; I did. I panicked, and I lashed out, and I didn't really plan to kill him, but I still did it." He lifted his head. "That's why I never wrote back to you, Jack. There's not an apology big enough for what I did. There's nothing to say. No matter how much I want to, I can't come back here. I'm not like you guys. I'm not a hero."

Jack was vaguely aware of Omi sinking back down to his seat on the floor, but his eyes were locked with Raimundo's, murky green and utterly miserable. He waited for someone to protest, but no one did. Scooting closer to the cot, Jack rested his elbows on the thin padding and asked, "Do you want to be?"

For just a second, Raimundo's eyes somehow grew even wider, but then he ducked his head again and took a deep, shaky breath. Jack thought he heard a hint of a sniffle. Fidgeting with the goggles on his head, Jack sat up straighter and said, "You know, I've been working on a Shen Gong Wu Detectobot ever since Dojo went crazy and grew that second head- figured we might need a back-up tracker, you know? Anyway, if I can use technology to track down Xiaolin magic, I bet I can reprogram it to detect the reaper infection!"

Rubbing at his eyes, Raimundo glanced back up yet again. Clay tapped a finger to his chin and nodded thoughtfully, and Omi's mouth curved into a hopeful smile, but Kimiko looked far more skeptical. "Maybe," she said, "but can you get it out once you find it?"

"Please, Kimiko." Jack stood up just as dramatically as Omi had moments ago. Mimicking the smaller monk's confidence, he rested his hands on his hips, squared his shoulders, and gave the group a bold grin. "You're looking at a Xiaolin Boy Genius. There's nothing my inventions can't do!"


	29. Chapter 29

A few days after Raimundo's return to the temple, Master Monk Chase observed the four Xiaolin Apprentices during their afternoon training. Though he knew that allowing the monks to figure out the Dragon X Kumei formation on their own was the wisest course of action, he was secretly just as flummoxed as they were. In his own apprentice days 1,500 years ago, he had mastered his formation with Dashi and Guan within a week, and every other generation since had performed similarly. He didn't know why his current students were still having so much trouble.

"This ain't workin,'" said Clay, pulling out of his crouch next to Omi, who held Kimiko upside down above his head. "Maybe the trick is to get our blood pumpin' first. We can't just strike a pose and call it a day, y'know?"

"I do not understand!" Omi bent his elbows and let Kimiko backflip off his hands and onto the ground. "I am just as focused as when I use my Tsunami Strike. I know my pose is perfect, and by what I have observed, everyone else is doing the same... even Jack!"

On Omi's other side, Jack pulled out of his own battle stance and put his hands on his hips. "Hey!"

"Maybe some sparring will help?" asked Kimiko. "I mean, we can do teamwork exercises all day, but they're not really changing anything. Maybe Clay's right and we need to get into, like, some sort of 'fight mode,' like we have to really mean it for the formation to work." She shrugged. "Or I don't know, maybe sparring will just make us mad at each other."

"I never get mad at any of you during sparring!" said Omi, looking horrified at the thought. "It is simply practice for mastering battle techniques!"

"I'm with the cowboy on this one," said Jack, striding toward the chest of Shen Gong Wu and plucking one out. "I say we duke it out a bit and see if something clicks. Tongue of Saiping!" After giving his teammates a mischievous grin, he held the rectangular Shen Gong Wu to his mouth, and the tongue at its center flapped at his words, "Squirrels in the garden, attack!"

Jack hadn't even finished his sentence before Omi shrieked and took off for the bamboo section of the obstacle course. Half a dozen squirrels bounded out of the nearby bushes and charged at the remaining monks, and Jack burst out laughing.

Kimiko wrinkled her nose and said, "Really, Jack? Squirrels? That's a low move, even for you. Tangle Web Comb!" In an elegant, swooping motion, she pulled the comb out of her hair and swept the expanding tendrils out in front of her, tossing the squirrels aside. They rolled across the dirt and scattered in a flurry of angry squeaks.

"Alrighty, partner," said Clay, pulling the rope off his hip, "if y'all wanna play it that way, Lasso Boa Boa, Earth!"

At his command, the rope lunged at Jack like a hungry serpent, and Jack paused laughing long enough to call out, "Serpent's Tail!" His body went transparent right before the lasso could close around him. The loop morphed into rock and fell at his feet with a heavy thud. Still ghost-like, Jack dove into the ground, rose out behind Clay, and let out another wicked cackle as he dropped his Shen Gong Wu and kicked his teammate right between the legs. Clay wheezed and collapsed. Jack threw his fists into the air and crowed, "Dropped like a sack of bricks!"

"What is your problem?" Kimiko yelled. Gritting her teeth, she swirled the comb's tendrils in an arc over her head. "Tangle Web Comb, Fi-"

"Glove of Jisaku."

With a shriek, Jack was yanked across the field like a trout on a fishing line, and his body smacked into the magnet on Master Monk Chase's Shen Gong Wu with a loud, distinct clang. The other three apprentices jumped at the noise, and Jack looked up with the elder with a nervous smile and said, "Uhh, heeeey there, Chase, my dude..."

Deadpan and scowling, Master Monk Chase asked, "Where is Jack?"

Jack's eyes made the tiniest whirring noises as they darted about. "Uh. I'm right here, duh. Where else would I be? Haha-"

"You are not Jack. You are his robotic double, RoboJack." Chase lifted the Glove of Jisaku up a few inches, lifting RoboJack into the air with it. "I forbade him from using you to deceive us, especially to replace himself during training. He has never been one to respect authority, but to be this brazen in his disobedience is not like him. Where is he?"

As the other three approached, RoboJack tried to cross his arms in defiance, but he had to rest them awkwardly over the Glove of Jisaku still magnetically attached to his chest. "Like I would tell you! You think I'd turn traitor on my master? I'm a Robot Boy Genius, not a snitch-" Behind him, Omi loudly cracked his knuckles, and RoboJack's voice turned a bit crackly when it rose an octave, "I m-mean, I have no idea! Jack is super good at keeping secrets; he never tells me anything-" The tendrils from Kimiko's Tangle Web Comb crept into RoboJack's field of vision, ready to pounce. RoboJack kicked frantically in the air and squeaked, "Okay, okay! Don't do me ugly! He's in his secret lair!"

Master Monk Chase loosened his grip on the Glove of Jisaku and let RoboJack pop off the magnet and onto the ground. Through gritted teeth, the elder said, "Omi, please fetch Jack from his room and bring him out here at once."

Omi pulled out of his battle stance and blinked up at the elder. "His room? But the robot said he is in his secret lair."

Master Monk Chase raised an eyebrow. "Is that not what he calls his bedroom?"

Omi shook his head. "Jack moved all of his robotic projects to another location in the temple, some spare room that he calls his 'secret lair.' He has refused to show me where it is, and I have been unsuccessful in finding it myself."

"Every room in the temple has a purpose," said Master Monk Chase. "If Jack had filled any of them with his inventions, I am certain I would have noticed."

"Well, ding dong, you'd be wrong," said RoboJack, who cringed when Master Monk Chase pointed the Glove of Jisaku back down at him. Somehow wrinkling his robotic nose, he sat up straighter. "Jack's had his secret lair way longer than he's had me around. If none of you have figured out where it is yet, it's because none of you are paying any attention to him. Some friends you are."

Kimiko scoffed, and Clay shook his head, but Omi actually flinched and ducked his head at RoboJack's words. Master Monk Chase took a step closer to the robot, still pointing the Glove of Jisaku, and said, "If Jack's secret lair isn't in his bedroom, and it is not in any of the rooms I have used, then where exactly is it, then?"

* * *

Under the Xiaolin temple greenhouse, Raimundo sat on a metal bench with three suction cups attached to his forehead. Wires on the suction cups stretched to a beeping, flashing machine precariously perched atop the ancient dragon statue in the center of the room. Underneath the statue's head, Jack Spicer hunched over a laptop, squinting at the screen through his yellow goggles and typing rapidly before he said, "Okay! If my calculations are correct- which they always are- my Reaper Detecto-Bot should be fully operational! All I gotta do is hit this button, and boom!"

With a dramatic swing of his entire arm, Jack pressed a key on his laptop. The machine over his head beeped and whirled, the wires glowed, and with a loud crackling sound, the resulting electric current zapped Raimundo clear off his seat. With a yelp, he toppled backward into a pile of robot parts, and the suction cups popped off his head.

"Huh. Nothing." Jack looked up from his screen and pushed his goggles up onto his forehead, and when all he could see of Raimundo was a pair of twitching legs behind the bench, he jumped to his feet and nearly tripped over half a Jackbot while rushing to him. "Whoa, hey, Beta Brawn, you okay?"

Wincing, Raimundo climbed up to a sitting position among the metal scraps. "Yeah. Not fully cooked yet. Medium-rare at best." Taking Jack's offered hand, he let the other teen pull him up to stand. "Was, uh, was it supposed to do that?"

For some reason, Jack did not answer him immediately; his attention shifted to their clasped hands, and his ears turned pink. Raimundo let go, and Jack tumbled back over another Jackbot on the floor while babbling, "S-sorry, Kimiko says my hands are clammy, didn't mean to gross you out-"

"Huh?"

"Nothing!" Jack grabbed an open bottle of soda off a crowded work table and took a swig. Tripping over yet another Jackbot, he returned to his laptop and plopped the soda bottle atop an ancient-looking wooden box under the statue's chest. Clearing his throat, he sat back down and said, "Looks like something went wrong in the programming. Not sure why. It should theoretically function the same as the Shen Gong Wu Detectobot. I guess adding organic matter to the mix made things complicated."

Raimundo's mouth pressed thin. "You think this reaper thing is organic matter?"

"No, but you are."

"Oh. Right. Duh." Raimundo shifted his gaze around the room, passing briefly over an old scroll near his feet lying open to a passage titled Year of the Green Monkey. Scratching at his hair, he side-stepped back toward the bench and muttered, "So you're really buying into this whole reaper thing, huh?"

"Well, Chase said he was just guessing," said Jack as he planted his goggles back over his eyes, "but that's why we have the scientific method! We make hypotheses, and then we experiment until we know for sure!" He gave Raimundo a cheeky grin. "It's a good thing you've got a Xiaolin Boy Genius on your side to make sure everything is accurate."

Raimundo sat back down and slumped. "What if there's nothing there? What if there's no reaper gunk at all, and it's just me?"

"Uh, well." Jack pursed his lips and shifted his attention to the computer screen. "We won't know for sure until I have my Detecto-Bot working-"

"Because it is just me, Jack." Raimundo leaned forward, gripping his knees and trying to keep his voice from cracking. "It's been me the whole time. I don't know how else to explain it to you guys, but there's nothing controlling me or telling me what to do. There's no evil voice in my head. It's just me. Do you really think I'm wrong, and there's some crazy murderous demon spawn in my brain, forcing me to do bad things..." He gulped and wrapped his arms around his stomach. "Or do you just really want to believe that none of the bad things were my fault?"

Jack did not answer immediately. He bit his lip and drummed his fingers across the top of his laptop before he shrugged and said, "I mean... both, I guess?" Shifting back and forth in his seat, he added, "I mean, when we argued in Rio, you sounded pretty sure that you were doing the right thing, and I think if some reaper gunk on your soul was making you do it, you would have been a lot more confused or something. There's not really been any time where I thought you weren't yourself." He sat up from his hunched posture and lifted the goggles away from his eyes. "But, like, I meant the stuff I said in my letter. The Raimundo I know is a really cool guy. You're always jumping in to save my butt, and you were really good at being a Xiaolin Dragon, and you're funny and smart and nice and... I don't know. The whole murdering thing just doesn't... fit? Like, there's gotta be something weird going on, right?" His face lit up in a wide grin. "So I'm gonna find out for sure! I'm not giving up until I do!"

Raimundo hadn't realized how much he had missed Jack's smile until now. Ignoring the sudden weakness in his knees and the weird pattering of his heart, he mumbled at the floor, "Has anyone ever told you that you're too trusting?"

"Yes: Omi, ironically enough." Jack tossed his laptop onto a nearby Koibot and reached up to fiddle with the dials on the machine overhead. "What can I say? I've never had a lot of friends, so I'm not about to quit on the few I've got." Smacking at the machine until the little screen on the front lit up, he turned and beamed again. "If there's even a teeny tiny chance that my buddy Beta Brawn Raimundo has some creepy evil gunk in him, then I'm going to do everything I can to save him!"

Raimundo's gaze shifted back up to Jack and softened. "You're... really amazing, you know that, querido?"

Jack somehow managed to trip on absolutely nothing; he tumbled back down to his seat, and his elbow bumped the open soda bottle to spill onto the wooden box. Grazing his fingers through his messy hair, he tossed his head back and said, "Me? Pff, I mean, yeah, not anyone can build a magic-detecting robot in like three days, but that's genius for you-"

"I'm not talking about the robots." Feeling his cheeks and ears turn hot, Raimundo finally managed to return Jack's smile with a weak one of his own. "They're cool and all, but you're the coolest one in the room. Honestly, dude, you're incredible." His smile and gazed dropped back down. "I don't deserve you."

Jack's cheeks turned as red as his hair, and his attempt at a response came out as a shocked squeak.

Then the wooden box exploded.

* * *

Master Monk Chase and the apprentices ran toward the temple greenhouse, but they were too late. At Dojo's panicked screech, a mass of thick green vines burst straight into the air, shattering the glass roof. Roots sprang from the dirt underfoot, wrapping around every stone and brick they could reach, and a massive green stem rose out amid the vines. At the top of the plant, a purple and red flower opened to reveal a humanoid yellow face that cackled, "Bonjoooooour, little puny people!"

"THE HEYLIN SEED'S BEEN UNLEASHED!" yelled Dojo.

Clay skidded to a stop to pick up his jaw off the ground. "What in tarnation is it?"

"And why is it French?" asked Kimiko.

"WE'RE DOOMED!" Dojo screamed, latching onto Omi and swinging off his arm in a dramatic faint.

Growing even taller to cast a shadow over the Xiaolin team, the plant laughed maniacally. Its vines stretched out across the temple like a massive spider web, and ensnared among them squirmed Raimundo and Jack, the latter of whom cried out, "This is so unfair! The one time I bring a soda downstairs, the world has to end! My granny always said, 'Never bring drinks into the computer room,' but did I listen? Noooo-"

Master Monk Chase sprang up into the vines, and with a few swift yanks, he freed the two teenagers. Raimundo landed and rolled onto his feet, while Jack splatted onto the ground face-first. When Chase landed between them, he lifted up Jack by the back of his shirt and said, "Would you care to explain to me what you were doing in the Heylin Seed's prison cell after I forbade you from entering it?" Whipping his head around to narrow his eyes at Raimundo, he added, "And what are you doing outside the infirmary?"

"Might have to fuss at 'em later, Master Chase!" called Clay, shuffling backward as the green branches snaked down, wrapping around every surface they touched. Master Monk Chase dropped Jack, and the monks scattered. Climbing up onto a stone fountain, Clay tilted his hat back. Watching the vines creep toward the temple vault, he pointed and called, "That no good thievin' plant's goin' right for our Wu!"

"Well, you know what they say." Jack stretched out his arms to his side, one pointed upward and the other downward. "Three hundredth time's the charm!"

Omi frowned at him. "No one says that."

"Take the hint, Cue Ball!" said Jack. "Get in formation!"

"Oh! Right!" Omi ran to Jack's side, catching Kimiko over his head, and as Clay matched Jack's pose on Omi's other side, the four cried out, "Dragon X Kumei Formation!"

Absolutely nothing happened. The Heylin Seed's flowered head and stem slithered across the courtyard and arched over the temple vault. With an anguished groan, Omi threw back his head and yelled, "I don't understand! What are we doing wrong?"

As the vines crept toward the vault's double doors, Master Monk Chase barreled up the stairs and slammed the doors shut. The Heylin Seed leaned over the temple roof and giggled, "Well, helloooo, Monsieur Chase, long time no see!"

The plant tried to snag a vine around Master Monk Chase's leg, but the elder monk sprang out of the way and landed between the Heylin Seed and his students. Fists raised for battle, Chase said, "Young monks, the Heylin Seed will only grow stronger with time. It is imperative that we defeat him now!"

"No offense, Master Chase," said Kimiko, "but you do realize that this thing is a plant, right?" She snapped her fingers, and a tiny flame appeared at the tip of her finger. Her mouth curved upward along with one eyebrow. "Stand back, boys. I'll turn this weed into charcoal." Climbing onto Clay's shoulder, she sprang into the air and cried out, "Judolette Flip, Fire!" Swirling across the battlefield, she slammed into the vines wrapping around the vault, and flames burst from her open palms, burning the vines into cinders.

The scarred remains tumbled to the paved ground, but the Heylin Seed's face overhead was unfazed. As the plant let out another obnoxious giggle, new vines replaced the old. Still clinging to the wall, Kimiko raised her inflamed fist again, but before she could strike, a cluster of little flowers popped open on the vines in front of her. Her mouth opened in surprise when they babbled, "Come on, you know you can't win. You are finished!" The flowers spat a yellow cloud of spores into her face, and she toppled off the vault with a yelp.

When Kimiko hit the ground, Dojo rubbed at the tuft of fur at his chin and said, "Hey, that reminds me: don't touch the flowers. There's something unusual about them."

Kimiko tried to stand, but her feet remained attached to the pavement. The boys gaped in horror as her body turned rigid and brown, and flowers started to bloom on her skin. She squeaked, "I'm turning into a plant!"

"Oh yeah," said Dojo, "that must be it!"

Master Monk Chase ran to Kimiko's side, and Clay clenched his fists and bared his teeth up at the Heylin Seed. "Now y'all just messed with the wrong monks, ya big tumbleweed! Seismic Kick, Earth!" He slammed his heel into the ground, and massive chunks of the stone pavement lurched out of the earth and flew at the Heylin Seed's face.

As the plant whipped out a web of vines to catch the massive rocks, Omi and Clay leaped onto the vault wall. While the two boys grappled with the branches, Raimundo trotted to Master Monk Chase and Kimiko and said, "If fire can't take this thing down, then what do we do? What's this thing's weakness?"

"The Heylin Seed's only weakness is the Moonstone Locust," said Master Monk Chase, crouching next to Kimiko and gritting his teeth. "Its sole purpose is to devour any plant it encounters. Not to worry, young monks: if the Heylin Seed has been unleashed, the balance of the universe will ensure that the Moonstone Locust reveals itself soon."

"Ooooh." Jack grimaced and tapped his index fingers together. "Bad news, Chase. So, uh, that Wu already revealed itself a few days ago, while you were in the infirmary," he pointed at his prior teammate, "keeping Raimundo from dying."

Master Monk Chase whipped his head around and asked, "Where is it now?"

Jack feebly waved his hands. "Well, you know how I came back to the temple all covered in bruises shaped like Warlord Guan's fists?" He rubbed at his neck. "Yeahhhh, Guan has the Moonstone Locust."

Dojo dropped at Jack's feet in a cloud of yellow, stiff as a twig, sprouting leaves, and wailing, "Then we really ARE doomed!"

"Nice going, Jack," muttered Kimiko, too stiff to twist her head around to glare at him. "You freed a world-ending evil and lost the only thing that can beat it."

Jack pouted, but he didn't flinch at Kimiko's words. He puffed out his chest and said, "Hey, come on, that's quitter talk! There's gotta be another way to finish off this thing. It's a plant! It's at the bottom of the food chain-" He gasped and clapped his hands together. "Wait, that's it! I just had a brilliant idea!" Grinning like his birthday had arrived early, Jack bolted for the vault doors just as the Heylin Seed managed to pry them open, and he leaped inside.

Master Monk Chase called, "Jack, wait, get back here-" He started to rush forward, but a thin vine snared his ankle. He didn't trip, but he glanced down and went still just long enough for another flowered branch to sway down near his head and cast another burst of yellow into his face. His feet rooted to the ground, his hair turned mossy green, and branches sprouted out of his shoulders.

The Heylin Seed cackled, and while vines stretched into the vault after Jack, Omi and Clay dropped off the vault like sprayed bugs. Still coughing yellow, the two flailed in place until their limbs went still and turned green. Raimundo heard a high-pitched shriek in the vault, and then a thick vine dragged Jack by the ankle outside and into the open air. Jack screamed, "HELP ME!"

"Let him go, you overgrown weed!" Raimundo sprang onto the water fountain and then flew straight up toward the plant's flowered face. "Wind!" Dodging around the snapping branches and bursts of yellow, he punched the Heylin Seed right between its beady eyes.

The plant careened backward at the hit. Raimundo landed on another roof near the vault. Still dangling upside down in the sky, Jack wailed, "Please don't hurt me! I love plants! I've never eaten a vegetable in my life!"

"Well, isn't that super?" said the Heylin Seed, curling the vine further down Jack's leg. "If you love plants so much, now you get to join them!" A little flower popped open on the vine and spat a cloud of yellow down on Jack's face, and Raimundo yelled in alarm.

Nothing happened.

The Heylin Seed lowered its head to scowl at Jack, who shifted his eyes nervously, flailed his hands around, and said, "Oh no, not my human flesh, noooo..." He winced at another blast of spores in his face, but he remained otherwise unchanged.

"What is this trickery-?" Before the Heylin Seed could finish, Raimundo pounced on its flowered head. "Augh, sacrebleu!" It lurched in the air, spinning Jack around with him, but Raimundo wrapped his legs around the plant's stem and dug his fingers into its petals. Closing his grip around the base of the Heylin Seed's head, he yanked his entire body backwards, and the plant's face popped right off.

Losing his balance, Raimundo dropped to the ground and summoned his element just in time to land on his feet. Kimiko, Clay, Omi, Dojo, and Master Monk Chase gaped at the Heylin Seed's disembodied head still dangling from his hand, and Raimundo practically shrank in place under the weight of their stares. Overhead, Jack called, "Dude, that was brutal."

"It worked, didn't it?" Raimundo muttered defensively. He tossed aside the plant's giant stigma and kicked it away.

Then the monks heard rumbling. The vines and branches around them vibrated, crackling and spitting out yellow clouds, and out of the large flower burst a new face, now toothy and monstrous. With two stamens for eyes, it leaned over Raimundo and snarled, "Two can play at that game, little boy!" Wrapping a second vine around Jack's neck, it yanked and ripped Jack's head right off his shoulders.

All the monks screamed, and Raimundo was the loudest by far. "JACK, NO!"

Jack's head and body hit the pavement with an odd clanging sound. Raimundo dropped to his knees, but then Jack's head rolled to face him, and Raimundo noticed there wasn't a drop of blood anywhere right before the head scowled and said, "This is the thanks I get for Master's little switcheroo? He owes me big time for this one!"

"You're not-" Raimundo couldn't finish his sentence before a vine enclosed around his ribcage, pushing all the air out of his lungs. Wheezing, he could do little more than kick feebly as the Heylin Seed lifted him into the sky.

The Heylin Seed dangled Raimundo over its toothy, open jaw. "There is no hope for you now! Without the Moonstone Locust, you can't do anything to stop me! From now on, the plant kingdom will be on top!"

"Think again, ugly!" a voice rang out over the battlefield. The Heylin Seed spun its toothy head to face the roof of the temple vault, atop which stood Jack Spicer, who was covered in brown fur and clutching the Monkey Staff and Tongue of Saiping. Pulling his fuzzy lips into a wide grin, he called, "Guess what year it is? Surrender now, or I'll wipe the floor with you!"

The Heylin Seed swayed over the field to lean its toothy head over Jack. "Oh, will you now? You and what army?"

Wagging his tail and dancing in place, Jack let out a squeal of pure glee. "I can't believe you actually asked me that! I was so hoping you would ask me that!" Planting the Monkey Staff between two shingles and balancing on it with long, furry toes, he yelled, "ME AND THIS ARMY!" He thrust his other Shen Gong Wu over his head and called out, "Tongue of Saiping! MONKEYS OF THE JUNGLE, I SUMMON YOUR PRESENCE!"

Distant shrieks began to echo across the mountainsides, and then a bright green monkey sprang onto the stone perimeter of the temple with a fervent hoot. Raimundo and the Heylin Seed blinked down at it, but before either could react, another green monkey joined it on the wall. Then another. And another. Dozens of emerald green monkeys barreled out of the woods surrounding the temple and clambered past the stone walls, and then dozens became hundreds, flooding the temple courtyard with a mob of fur and screams.

Raimundo didn't know it was possible for a plant to openly cringe, but the Heylin Seed was recoiling in every direction, trying to escape the monkeys and finding nowhere to go. Amid the shrieks and hollers, Jack pointed upward and yelled, "Alright, monkey minions, let's show this evil weed who the real predators are!" He blinked, and his grin dropped just a tad. "Or, uh, herbivores. Because you're a plant." His eyes narrowed. "Wait. Monkeys are omnivores-" He swung his arm down to point at the Heylin Seed. "WHATEVER, ATTACK!"

Somehow, the monkeys' screams grew even louder, completely drowning out the Heylin Seed's exclamation of terror when they pounced. The vine around Raimundo's waist vibrated and loosened, and Raimundo shimmied to freedom. Kicking the vine as he sprang away, he summoned his element and drifted to a nearby rooftop, one of the only surfaces of the temple not currently occupied by monkeys gobbling plant matter. He spun back around in time to watch the Heylin Seed's new head and stem topple into the mass of teeth and green fur, and within an instant, the evil plant was completely eradicated.

Raimundo sprang down to land in front of Master Monk Chase, Dojo, and the other Xiaolin apprentices, but his protective instinct was unnecessary; the green monkeys ignored them. Every inch of vines and branches coating the temple buildings vanished within seconds, leaving the monkeys to disperse in every direction with full bellies, hooting, jumping, and grinning.

As soon as all evidence of the Heylin Seed was gone, its spell lifted on the other monks, and while they stretched their limbs and brushed the flower petals out of their hair, Jack sprang down from the roof. The monkeys below him all stretched out their arms, catching Jack when he landed. He stretched out across them like they were a fuzzy green couch, popped his goggles over his eyes like sunglasses, and said with a big grin, "And that is why Jack Spicer, Xiaolin Dragon of Metal, is a genius."

For a moment, all the other monks could do was gape. Raimundo recovered the swiftest, running to Jack and pulling him into a rib-squeezing hug. "Dude, that was so cool! I can't believe you thought of that! You were awesome out there!" Jack's toothy smile grew even wider, and Raimundo considered grabbing the Monkey Staff and tossing it aside because as much as he liked Jack, he didn't want to kiss him in his monkey state-

Wait, what?

Jack tilted his head at the sudden bewilderment in Raimundo's expression, but then Omi ran to the two, tugged at Jack's sleeve, and said, "Way to think on the outside of the box, Jack!"

"I can't believe that worked," muttered Kimiko, gawking at the green chaos and cowering a bit closer to Clay.

"No offense, Jack," said Clay, draping an arm around Kimiko's shoulder, "but don't ya think we traded one problem for another?"

Gasping in offense, Jack squirmed out of Raimundo's stunned arms and gestured outward. "My monkey minions aren't a problem! Didn't you see them? They obeyed me flawlessly! Just think: we can sick 'em on Guan whenever he gets too close, and I'll have a robot army and a monkey army-"

Jack's delighted gushing came to an abrupt stop when Master Monk Chase cleared his throat and held out his hand. Under his teacher's disapproving glare, Jack meekly approached and dropped the Monkey Staff and Tongue of Saiping into the open palm. Master Monk Chase held both Shen Gong Wu over his head, but he didn't have to say a word; the green monkeys paused in their rampage, noted the change in leadership, and quietly scattered.

"Unfortunately, Jack," said Master Monk Chase, "while the Year of the Green Monkey increases the strength of the Monkey Staff, it also strengthens its flaws. If you kept holding onto it, you would likely forget your humanity within hours."

"Hmm." Jack held up one palm. "An army of monkeys." He held up the other. "Being human." He lifted each of his palms up and down like he was weighing them on a scale. "Ehhh, wait, I guess I'd lose my genius if I forgot my humanity. Okay, fair enough." He let his hands drop to his hips.

"Don't think I've forgotten why the Heylin Seed was free in the first place, Jack," Master Monk Chase raised an eyebrow, "or how you replaced yourself with your robotic duplicate against my direct orders. Your disobedience will not be excused."

"Aww, come on, Chase!" whined Jack. "I just saved all your butts! Doesn't that count for something?"

"Come along, Jack, and we'll discuss your updated chore list." Master Monk Chase folded his hands and waited for Jack to finish his long groan of dismay before he turned to Raimundo and added, "Raimundo, please return to the infirmary. You do not look well."

"Yeah, Rai," said Kimiko, eyeing him up and down with a smirk, "you look a little lightheaded. About to swoon or something?"

Raimundo stammered out something intended to be actual words when he tore his gaze away from Jack to glower at her, and he felt his ears turn hot under her knowing smile. Jack began to follow Master Monk Chase back into the temple, pouting and slumping his shoulders, but then he glanced back at Raimundo, gave him a weak smile, and winked. Raimundo's heart sputtered in his chest, and his face turned even hotter. He clutched at his shirt, ignoring Kimiko's little giggle because now he had something way more important to worry about than some stupid reaper gunk in his soul:

He had a crush on Jack Spicer.


End file.
